Seoul, Aug 8 (IANS): South Korea and the United States have agreed to tighten their cooperation to excavate and repatriate the remains of Korean victims of Japan's wartime "forced mobilisation" when Korea was under Japan's colonial rule, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

The interior ministry signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), which is responsible for recovering unaccounted-for servicemen under the Department of Defense, in Hawaii on Wednesday (US time), Yonhap news agency reported.

Interior Minister Lee Sang-min and DPAA Director Kelly McKeague attended the signing ceremony, the ministry said.

The MoU calls on the two countries to conduct joint excavations, share DNA and scientific data and exchange specialised personnel for the excavation and identification of the remains of Koreans killed in the Pacific region.

More than 5,000 Koreans were killed or remain missing in the Pacific region after being mobilised to work for Japan while the Korean Peninsula was under Japan's colonial rule from 1910-1945.

In cooperation with the DPAA, South Korea retrieved and identified the remains of Choi Byeong-yeon, a victim of forced mobilisation, and brought them home in December, marking the first repatriation case from the Pacific region.