A U.S.-North Korea stalemate means no more war remains will return to America

The Korean War is often referred to as the "forgotten war" in the United States, and it seems, unfortunately, that the moniker still fits, as contemporary geopolitical theater takes precedent.

Amid all the noise emanating from the summit between President Trump and North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Hanoi in February — including the North Korean military reportedly growing restless — the U.S. Defense Department announced the end of a quieter, more somber agreement that was previously reached between the two countries.

The agreement, signed during Trump and Kim's first summit in Singapore last year, set up parallel programs to recover and return to the U.S. the remains of thousands of service members killed during the Korean War, which, while still technically a conflict, has not seen fighting in 65 years after an armistice was signed. The program resulted in North Korea returning 55 boxes of presumed remains of deceased U.S. soldiers killed during the war. Trump thanked Kim specifically for this aspect of the agreement.

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But the Pentagon said on Wednesday that the military has suspended efforts to recover the remains of thousands of service members. After the talks in Hanoi stalled, the North Korean program stopped communicating with U.S. officials.

While the recovery of more remains will, for the time being, no longer take place, the U.S. military will continue to try to identify the remains that have been recovered already. The military had also repatriated 64 sets of remains of South Korean service members who died during the conflict.