--- title: Donald Trump Thanks Kim Jong Un for Returning War Remains description: President Trump thanked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his "kind" return of the suspected remains of fallen American personnel canonical: https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/ author: Casey Quackenbush article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-08-02T06:57:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T21:02:12.323Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump Thanks Kim for Returning War Remains og:description: The President said he looked forward to seeing the North Korean dictator again og:url: https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc767e62335f638b3/698936e34ee262d5ea312791/gettyimages-1009230078.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4928 og:image:height: 2772 og:image:alt: US-NKOREA-REMAINS-DIPLOMACY og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump Thanks Kim for Returning War Remains twitter:description: The President said he looked forward to seeing the North Korean dictator again twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc767e62335f638b3/698936e34ee262d5ea312791/gettyimages-1009230078.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Trump Thanks Kim Jong Un for 'Kind Action' of Returning War Remains > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Aug 2, 2018 6:57 AM UTC  Flag draped transfer cases with the remains of American soldiers repatriated from North Korea are seen during a repatriation ceremony after arriving to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 1, 2018. Flag draped transfer cases with the remains of American soldiers repatriated from North Korea are seen during a repatriation ceremony after arriving to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, Hawaii, on Aug. 1, 2018. Ronen Zilberman—AFP/Getty Images by [Casey Quackenbush](https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/) ## Casey Quackenbush Aug 2, 2018 6:57 AM UTC President Donald Trump took to Twitter Thursday to thank North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for [the return of suspected remains](http://time.com/5350836/north-korea-war-remains/) of fallen U.S. service members, commending the “kind action” and saying he looked forward to seeing the chairman again soon. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1024879317577285633) Last week, North Korea handed over what is believed to be the remains of 55 U.S. soldiers who died during the 1950-1953 Korean War, following through on an agreement made between the two leaders at their [historic Singapore Summit](http://time.com/longform/donald-trump-kim-jong-un-photos/) in June. It was the first repatriation of remains since 2005. According to officials, North Korea returned the 55 boxes of remains with only a [single military dog tag](http://time.com/5354830/north-korea-war-remains-dog-tag/) and no other information that could help forensics specialists to identify the remains, the Associated Press reports. The remains were retrieved by a U.S. military aircraft from a seaside city in North Korea and brought to Osan Air Base outside of Seoul. The return coincided with the 65th anniversary of the end of the Korean War. Nearly 7,700 American military service-people are still [unaccounted for](http://www.dpaa.mil/Resources/Fact-Sheets/Article-View/Article/569610/progress-on-korean-war-personnel-accounting/) from the Korean War, according to the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, of which [approximately 5,300](https://www.stripes.com/news/veterans-group-urges-trump-to-push-north-korea-for-recovery-of-korean-war-era-remains-1.532177#vfwLetter) are thought to be in North Korea. The Trump Administration has lauded Pyongyang’s return of fallen servicemen as a successful outcome of the summit, at which a [four-point agreement](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/joint-statement-president-donald-j-trump-united-states-america-chairman-kim-jong-un-democratic-peoples-republic-korea-singapore-summit/) was reached between the two leaders. Other items on their joint memorandum, such as a pledge to “work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula,” remain unaddressed. Trump’s conciliatory tone stands in stark contrast to his rhetoric just last year, when he referred to the North Korean leader as a “little rocket man” in response to Pyongyang’s recent ballistic missile tests. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/"},"headline":"President Trump Thanks Kim Jong Un for 'Kind Action' of Returning War Remains","datePublished":"2018-08-02T06:57:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T21:02:12.323Z","description":"The President said he looked forward to seeing the North Korean dictator again","url":"https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/","keywords":["Donald Trump","onetime","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc767e62335f638b3/698936e34ee262d5ea312791/gettyimages-1009230078.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Casey Quackenbush","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/casey-quackenbush/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc767e62335f638b3/698936e34ee262d5ea312791/gettyimages-1009230078.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"US-NKOREA-REMAINS-DIPLOMACY","caption":"US-NKOREA-REMAINS-DIPLOMACY","creditText":"Ronen Zilberman—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/donald-trump/","name":"Donald Trump"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5356074/donald-trump-thanks-kim-jung-un/","name":"President Trump Thanks Kim Jong Un for 'Kind Action' of Returning War Remains"}}]}] ```