In the spring, about 27 members of the Hawaii-based Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command will fly from China to Pyongyang, North Korea, and head to some of the fiercest battlegrounds of the Korean War in a 45-day search for fallen American service members.

It will be the first such recovery mission in nearly seven years, and the first U.S. military presence in the communist North since 2005.

The Bush administration suspended the searches in May of that year due to North Korea’s unwillingness to negotiate over its nuclear program, heightened tensions, and the "uncertain environment" they created.

The Pentagon recently announced that the two nations reached an agreement calling for U.S. teams to work in two areas of North Korea — Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, and near the Chosin/Changjin Reservoir — where more than 2,000 soldiers and Marines are missing.

The accounting command, headquartered at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, expects to make two trips to North Korea between spring and early summer, and two more between late summer and fall next year.

For families of the 7,979 missing from the Korean War (5,500 of whom are believed to be in North Korea), the agreement has been a long time coming.

It’s been a wait tied up in politics and the North’s nuclear ambitions as those remaining on the homefront start to be claimed by old age 58 years after the 1950-53 war ended.

"It’s a disgrace that it’s taken this long," said 77-year-old Irene Mandra, national chairwoman of Korea-Cold War Families of the Missing, of the seven-year recovery drought.

The New York resident’s brother, Marine Sgt. Philip Mandra, is among those still on the rolls of the missing from the war.

"I can’t tell you how hard we worked with (President) Obama before he finally made the decision, but at least it’s here," she said.

She blames President George W. Bush for causing the recovery missions to end in 2005.

"I thought Bush was absolutely wrong," Mandra said. "He was trying to force the North Koreans to come to the (negotiating) table and you should know by now, that you cannot force the North Koreans to do anything, so it was the wrong approach."

In its announcement of the agreement for renewed recovery missions, the Pentagon said, "Accounting for Americans missing in action is a stand-alone humanitarian matter, not tied to any other issues between the two countries."

The Hickam-based accounting command, which reports to U.S. Pacific Command at Camp Smith, steers a wide berth around the politics of North Korea, but is at the center of the missions that will start back up in the reclusive nation sometime after the winter thaw, usually in March.

John Byrd, director of JPAC’s Central Identification Laboratory, was on the very last mission to North Korea in 2005, and he expects to go on one when they begin again next year.

JPAC, with about 400 military and civilian members, is charged with investigating, recovering and identifying Americans who were killed in action but were never brought home.

According to a September informational briefing made by JPAC, 229 sets of remains were recovered during U.S. operations to North Korea from 1996 to 2005, and 89 identifications had been made.

On the last mission to North Korea, the remains of more than 40 Americans were returned to American soil for identification, Byrd said.

"That tells you what the potential is," Byrd said. "They have not all produced those kinds of numbers, but that one did."

On the first recovery mission coming up, two teams of about a dozen each will split up and work mostly in Unsan and at the Chosin Reservoir, Byrd said.

"These were areas selected by the American side, because we know we are missing a lot of people in those areas," he said.

A big battle occurred at Unsan in October 1950, when the 8th Cavalry was "sort of the tip of the spear as we were driving toward the Chinese border, and they got surprised by the Chinese and overrun," Byrd said.

Unlike recoveries in Vietnam, where a jet crash may have obliterated remains and acidic jungle soil additionally took a toll, U.S. casualties in North Korea were often buried near where they fell, often in previously dug foxholes, and remains are in better condition because of cold in the winter.

In 2004, one team found dog tags still around a serviceman’s neck, and in his wallet were family photos and a newspaper clipping detailing how he had received a Bronze Star by taking out a machine gun nest in World War II.

Many were buried with just their uniform and had personal items, even boots, removed, Byrd said.

"It’s mainly just battlefield-expedient burials is what we’re expecting to find," he said.

Depressions in the ground from filled-in foxholes are a telltale sign.

Byrd said the North Korean battle landscape, meanwhile, has changed very little since the war.

"A lot of these battlefield areas, we still go out and we find the fighting positions, foxholes up on the hillsides and things like that," Byrd said.

Nick Nishimoto, a 25th Infantry Division soldier who was captured on Nov. 27, 1950, by the Chinese along with nearly every other member of B Company of the 35th Regiment, said he’s glad to see JPAC resuming the recovery missions.

The 82-year-old Honolulu man spent 33 months as a prisoner of war in North Korea.

"Even one remains (recovered) will keep us happy," Nishimoto said.

The ex-POW had harsh words for North Korea’s tactics and payment requirement for the missions.

"They just blackmailing us," he said.

The U.S. has paid North Korea millions in cash and equipment for the recovery operations. How much is being paid for the four missions next year is unclear.

"We’re not naming dollar amounts or payments," said Jessica Pierno, a spokeswoman for the Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office in Washington, D.C. "It is important that we reiterate that we do not pay for remains, and any transfer of money is compensation for services."

The agreement to resume recovery operations came days before separate meetings in Geneva over North Korea’s nuclear arms.

Brad Glosserman, executive director of the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies in Honolulu, said first and foremost is the U.S. government’s commitment to recovering fallen service members around the world.

"There’s no question that this matters," Glosserman said. "Frankly, the credibility of the social contract between the soldier and the country he fights for really rests at some fundamental level on the trust of knowing that your government will do all that it can to protect you in every way, and part of that is making every effort to bring you home even after death."

There are other U.S. purposes that are served by returning to the recovery missions, he said.

"It is a signal of U.S. interest to engage (North Korea)," Glosserman said.

Byrd, JPAC’s lab director, said science advances in the past 10 years have meant the Hawaii lab has "greatly accelerated" identifications from Korean War cases.

Mandra, who is still waiting for the return of her brother, sees the commitment by JPAC to Korean War recoveries and identifications; she just wishes the U.S. government had resumed the North Korea missions years ago.

"My (families) are in their late 70s, they are in their early 80s. They are dying and they want to bring their loved ones home," she said.

Mandra will be 78 in March.

"I want to see my brother home before I close my eyes," she said.