South Korea and the United States have held an in-person meeting on cooperation in excavating the remains of troops killed in the 1950-53 Korean War, following a four-year hiatus caused by COVID-19, Seoul's defense ministry said Wednesday.

Officials from the ministry's Agency for KIA Recovery and Identification and the Pentagon's Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency met at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Tuesday. KIA stands for killed in action, while POW and MIA are short for prisoner of war and missing in action.

In recent years, the two sides had held their regular talks either virtually or by phone due to the pandemic. The talks were launched after they signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the excavation of troop remains in 2007.

During this week's talks, the two sides shared the need to expand excavation projects and agreed to continue regular cooperation in the efforts to locate and identify troop remains, according to the ministry.

The normalization of the meeting came as Seoul and Washington mark the 70th anniversary of the bilateral treaty alliance. (Yonhap)