How Did Montgomery's Talks And Trip Was Successful?

Whether Montgomery’s talks and trip were successful? One way to evaluate the success was to go back to his remarks on May 29, at Hickam AFB. In his speech, he stressed that his trip would enable 5 families to reunite their long-lost loved ones and improve the U.S.-DPRK relationship. In a short term, at least immediately after the trip, he would feel disappointment as neither of his expectation was materialized. However, when we consider the dynamics of the two countries’ contact in the whole 1990s, Montgomery’s trip did break the ice that had frozen the Korean War POW/MIA issues as well as their cooperation in maintaining peace in Korea.
Political battles between Pyongyang and Washington resumed even before the remains reached Hawaii, which undoubtedly frustrated those who would expect a sudden change in the two countries’ relations. In the past several
military anthropologists in identifying the remains not only strained the U.S.-DPRK relations after the repatriation ceremony, but also caused suspicion and frustration domestically. Admittedly, it is reasonable to blame North Koreans for the problems faced by the U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory during the identification process, but it is unfair to say that the poor conditions of the remains were just results of intentional sabotage. According to Montgomery’s trip report and the documents delivered with the remains, the 5 bodies were recovered far away from established U.S. military temporary cemeteries or POW camps. They were likely from mass graves dug by the enemy or aircraft crash sites. Such burial methods almost guarantee serious commingling of bodies, which are difficult to segregate by personnel without anthropological training. As a result, when the U.S. military anthropologist began to identify the remains, they realized that there were at least 7 men in the coffins. None in Montgomery’s team, however, realized this problem when inspecting the remains in