The US has halted efforts to retrieve the remains of its troops killed during the Korean War amid a breakdown in communication with North Korea.
North Korea last year handed over the remains of more than 50 US servicemen killed in the 1950-1953 conflict.
It was a sign of improved relations between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
But the Pentagon on Wednesday said the programme had been halted following a failed summit between the two leaders.
Some 36,000 American soldiers died during the Korean War and the US says more than 7,700 remain unaccounted for.
Around 5,300 of these soldiers were lost in North Korea.
The joint effort to return the bodies of US soldiers marked the partial fulfilment of an agreement reached between Trump and Kim during their historic first meeting in Singapore in 2018.
But communications halted following a second summit in Vietnam this year in which the leaders failed to make progress in talks over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Chuck Prichard, a spokesman for the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), said on Wednesday that North Korean officials had not communicated with the agency since the February summit.
“As a result, our efforts to communicate with the Korean People's Army regarding the possible resumption of joint recovery operations for 2019 has been suspended,” he said in a statement.
“We have reached the point where we can no longer effectively plan, coordinate, and…
