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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Sorry to be late coming in on this.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>One general point. I am no authority on death, wartime or
otherwise, but the idea of war cemeteraries always seems to me to be rather a
late idea - American Civil War perhaps? You will find no cemeteries for Waterloo
or other major battles, though individual monuments can be found in churches or
occasionally at battle sites.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>On North Korean Korean War dead, apart from the Pyongyang
cemetery, the only reference I ever got to war graves was at Kaesong in 2001.
There are some tombs visible from the Koryo museum - mounds, not very big but
quite distinctive, with walls around. When I asked, I was told that these were
officers' tombs from the Korean war but nothing more.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Generally, I would be surprised if much survived the
bombing etc.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>As to other burials, I think that of the dead in the big
cities are cremated. I was told that the ashes are stored in memorial halls, and
may be brought out on the death anniversary or at Chusok., where they will be
honoured at a family meal. We saw this happening along the banks of the Potang
river in 2002 - including one group where an elderly man was bowing formally to
the ashes and picture of the deceased.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Elsewhere, there are certainly tombs with grave markers on
hillsides or in remote spots - I have photographs of some. At the 'tomb of King
Tongmyong', there are many graves from the fifteenth to the nineteenth
centuries, but also some more recent ones in the wood behind the king's tomb. In
some villages, you can see what is clearly a collective burial site. I remember
asking about mortality rates because of the food shortages near Sariwon (?)
in 1998. The person I was talking to pointed out the graves on a hill nearby and
said that more older people and children had been buried there in recent years.
So whatever was happening when Erik Cornell was in the DPRK in 1972, people now
do seem to die.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>On another point, I agree entirely with Ken Quinones about
the MIA programme. Here was a small but effective confidence building measure
that was helping both sides, not only in the sense that the North got money and
a few American families were able to learn what had happened to their dead, but
the US and DPRK military were getting to know each other a bit. The US military
were also getting to see bits of the country that other foreigners could not
penetrate. A pity it ended.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>Jim Hoare</FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>