Georgian soldier ID'd in remains returned from North Korea

March 19 (UPI) -- Scientists identified the remains of an 18-year-old soldier who died in 1950 in battle during the Korean War as part of an effort to recover U.S. service members who died and were buried in North Korea, the Department of Defense announced Tuesday.

Army Cpl. James C. Rix, a native of Alamo, Ga., died Nov. 30, 1950, during fighting against the Chinese military in North Pyongan province during the Korean War.

Rix was attached to Company E, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division of the U.S. Army.

His remains at the time were interred at the United Nations Military Cemetery Pyongyang on Dec. 2, 1950. In 1954, Rix was exhumed and because he could not be identified, the body was reinterred at the National Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, also known as the Punchbowl.

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency exhumed the remains again in 2017 and scientists used dental and anthropological analysis, circumstantial and material evidence and mitochondrial DNA analysis to identify Rix's remains.

The DPAA said Rix will be reburied in his hometown on May 4. His name appears on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, where a rosette will be etched next to his name to indicate his identification.

The DPAA said 7,663 U.S. service members remain unaccounted for from the Korean War.