Kim Hong-Ji / Reuters
North Korea claimed Monday that the remains of U.S. soliders from the Korean War are being “carried way en masse” and neglected. The story appears to be the Hermit Kingdom’s way of pressuring the U.S. to resume its project to recover the remains, which granted significant funds to the impoverished country. The program was suspended in 2012 when North Korea claimed it would launch long-range missiles. North Korea was set to take in millions of dollars for cooperating with the recovery of remains. An unnamed North Korea military spokesman said flood damage and building projects forced the disarray, with corpses “left here and there uncared.” He claimed the remains “now look like no better than stones,” and called on the Obama administration to “not forget even a moment the proverb saying that even a skeleton cries out of yearning for the homeland.” Around 8,000 U.S. soldiers are listed as missing from the Korean War, with 5,300 thought to be in North Korea. The news comes during a time that some experts suspect is politically chaotic in North Korea. Leader Kim Jong Un hasn’t been seen in public in several weeks, prompting the world to wonder if he is even still in power.