S.Korea to return remains of Chinese soldiers in late March

South Korea's Defense Ministry said Monday that it will return more than 400 sets of remains of Chinese volunteer soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War later this month.

Officials from South Korea and China held a rite of placing the remains of 437 Chinese soldiers killed during the three-year civil conflict between the two Koreas, into coffins as of 2 p.m. local time in the South Korean border city of Paju, according to the Defense Ministry.

The remains will be brought home by plane around 10 days after all the bodies are placed into coffins provided by the Chinese government, the ministry said.

During an official visit to China late last year, South Korean President Park Guen-hye offered to return the remains of Chinese soldiers to China. The two countries agreed to bring them home before the traditional Tomb-Sweeping Day in early April.

On Dec. 19 last year, South Korea started excavating the remains buried at a cemetery in the border city of Paju. The excavation work took around three months as the remains and relics should be washed and dried.

The Chinese People's Volunteers (CPV) were involved in the Korean War from Oct. 25, 1950, about four months after the conflict broke out, as they tried to help the people of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea resist U.S. aggression. Tens of thousands of CPV soldiers died on the Korean Peninsula during the war.