In hopes of opening a new avenue to clues about U.S. servicemen missing from the Korean War, Defense Secretary William Cohen asked China Tuesday to open its military archives to Defense Department researchers.
Cohen raised the issue during a meeting with President Jiang Zemin at the close of a three-day visit to China, but no direct response was given, said Frank Kramer, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.Jiang did not indicate he opposed the idea, Kramer said.
Cohen also made the request in talks on Monday with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Chi Haotian, who is a decorated veteran of the 1950-53 Korean War in which Chinese forces entered the war in the fall of 1950 to support North Korea.
More than 8,100 U.S. servicemen are listed as missing from the Korean War, and while North Korea in the past year has begun permitting searches for battlefield remains, U.S. officials are eager to review China's wartime records.
After its forces entered the war against the U.S.-led United Nations forces fighting for South Korea, China took control of the POWs camps in North Korea. It also took some American POWs across the border into China for interrogations.