North Korea and the United States have agreed to hold five rounds of joint excavation work this year to unearth remains of U.S. soldiers killed during the Korean War.

A spokesman for the POW/Missing Personnel Office at the U.S. Department of Defense announced the agreement Tuesday in an interview with Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-run broadcaster targeted at North Korea.

The officials said that the recovery efforts will be made simultaneously at Unsan, some 100 kilometers north of Pyongyang, and Changjin in South Hamgyong Porvince, from late April through November.