by Xinhua writers Yan Hao and Liu Xin

    BEIJING, Oct. 30 (Xinhua) -- Chinese military archivists have identified more than 100 documents that could lead to the repatriation of the remains of the United States personnel who disappeared during and after the Korean War (1950-1953).

    More than 50,000 U.S. personnel were killed in Korean Peninsula and along the border of China and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The U.S. Department of Defense still lists more than 8,100 as missing.

    China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Archives Department has been combing more than 1.5 million archives of the then People's Volunteer Army (PVA), the Central Military Commission (CMC) and the PLA headquarters during the Korean War.

    Archivists have given at least four valuable archives found in the first 10 percent to the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) of the U.S. Department of Defense.

    Chinese archivists have also located the site where a U.S. bomber crashed 59 years ago in south China's Guangdong Province.

    After visiting the site and interviewing 19 witnesses who helped them identify the burial site of U.S. crew, they believe the possibility of finding the remains is high.

    A MYSTERY SOLVED

    During a visit to China in 2005, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, was given an unprecedented tour of the PLA Second Artillery Force headquarters. Rumsfeld requested the PLA help search for the whereabouts of one of his companions in U.S. Naval Aviation who was shot down in China's coastal area when piloting a surveillance aircraft in August 1956.

    In a return visit in July 2006, Gen. Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, gave a copy of archives confirming the pilot's death to Rumsfeld, finally ending the mystery over the pilot's fate.

    The U.S. side also received a copy of archives recording the story of another U.S. pilot who was shot down and protected from the Japanese by Chinese guerrillas in February 1944.

    First Lt. Donald Kerr, of the Flying Tigers, the 1st American Volunteer Group (AVG), who fought for China against Japanese forces in World War II, drew cartoon pictures on the back of a cigarette pack to explain his experience to Chinese civilians and Dong Jiang guerrillas who hid him for almost a month from Japanese troops.

    Under an agreement between Chinese and American military leaders in 2006, the PLA Archives Department started to thoroughly review PVA documents for indications as to the possible wheabouts of missing U.S. personnel in China.