The United States will soon begin searching in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) for remains of American soldiers reported missing in the Korean War, the Defense Department said on Friday.

According to Carie Parker, a spokeswoman for Pentagon's Prisoner of War/Missing Personnel Office, members of the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action (POW/MIA) Accounting Command are preparing for their first mission to the DPRK in seven years.

The humanitarian mission, expected to begin this spring, will bring together U.S. and DPRK military members, said Parker.

U.S. teams will work in two areas in the DPRK: Unsan County, about 60 miles north of Pyongyang, and near the Chosin/Jangjin Reservoir, where more than 2,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines are believed to be missing, Parker noted.

Of approximately 83,000 Americans missing from all conflicts, 7, 967 are from the Korean War, she added.

U.S. specialists from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command had conducted operations in the DPRK for 10 years, recovering remains believed to belong to more than 225 American servicemen since 1996. However, the United States halted such operations in 2005 due to increased tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Washington and Pyongyang agreed last October to resume the recovery missions.