The Defense Department agency tasked with finding and repatriating the remains of American troops killed in the Korean War has been "met with silence" in its recent outreach to Pyongyang, a DOD official testified at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on Tuesday.

Kelly McKeague, the director of the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), told members of Congress that the Pentagon would be open to returning to North Korea next year to search for more soldiers' remains — a rare area of military cooperation between Washington and Pyongyang — but so far has not received any signals that the DPRK will allow them in.