It followed North Korea's handover to the US of 55 sets of remains thought to be of American servicemen lost during the conflict.

This was in part-fulfilment of a commitment made by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to President Trump - to return the remains of 200 American MIAs.

Ms Bishop said that she had asked Ri Yong-ho for Australians to also be able to access the sites [where Australians were lost] and noted: "We offered forensic and expert assistance so that we can recover those Australian remains of soldiers after the Korean War, and he took that on board."

These were not the first American MIAs to be recovered. There was a longstanding recovery program run by the US in North Korea until 2005 when there was a political falling out between the US and North Korea, and recoveries were suspended.

American remains go to the sophisticated Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency’s Forensic Identification Laboratory at Oahu in Hawaii to try to identify them from family DNA and other indicators. The location where an MIA was found can also be useful in identifying the remains.

As of June 20, 2018, according to the US Department of Defense, the number of unaccounted-for US personnel was 7699. The total includes servicemen who died in action, “disappeared” in prisoner of war camps, and defectors. On June 27, 2018, the US House of Representatives allocated $10 million to help bring back US MIAs’ remains.

Until recently, successive Australian governments had not been proactive about recovering Australian MIAs. Ms Bishop claims to have made “numerous representations” on the MIA issue, “but none has been acknowledged by the North Koreans”. Raising the issue at high level and getting a response was a welcome development.

When I was in Pyongyang in 2015 I was told by officials that North Korea had advised the Australian ambassador visiting from South Korea that they were ready to cooperate with Australia to recover our MIAs. I subsequently raised the topic in Canberra and was told no such offer had been made. This leads to three possible conclusions: that North Korea never made the offer; that the ambassador did not pass on the message, or; that it did not suit the Australian government to pursue the offer.

Back in 2005, I was involved with “Operation Aussies Home” (OAH), an endeavour to try to recover our six MIAs from the Vietnam War. The project was organised by former army officer Jim Bourke who felt that Australia should make every effort to recover our MIAs. Jim initially approached the Australian government for assistance to mount a recovery attempt but was not supported because of the official view that it would be a waste of time. Jim got the same negative response from the national headquarters of the RSL.

In 2006, Paul Darrouzet, a Queensland businessman, donated $40,000 to cover OAH expenses. The government then provided a grant of $37,500. Even so, OAH ran on a tight budget - OAH members paid for their own travel and shared rooms in a cheap motel at Bien Hoa.

In May 2007, to most people’s surprise, OAH managed to locate the remains of the two first battalion Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) soldiers who had died in 1965 and been buried together by the Viet Cong. It was a remarkable achievement given the many difficulties involved. That success embarrassed the Australian government into making an official recovery effort in Vietnam and within two years the remaining four MIAs had been recovered.

Jim had planned to do the same thing for our Korean MIAs, but sadly he died from cancer in September 2015.

During the Korean conflict, Australia committed about 18,000 troops, ships and aircraft to the UN force. From the beginning of the commitment in 1950, until the Armistice on July 27, 1953, Australia suffered about 1600 casualties, including 339 killed in action - 42 of those killed are considered to be MIAs.

The army MIAs came from the three infantry battalions of the RAR; some of whom died in set-piece battles and others during patrolling and contact actions. The RAAF and RAN MIAs were aircrew downed over enemy territory. The RAAF lost 18 pilots, most of them flying close support missions. The aircrew from the RAN were serving with the Fleet Air Arm on board the aircraft carrier HMAS Sydney.

Two Australian units that fought throughout the conflict suffered the bulk of the MIAs - third battalion of the RAR and 77 Squadron of the RAAF. Most of the engagements that resulted in MIAs took place in what is now either North Korea or the four-kilometre-wide Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea.

The Australian Department of Defence has an efficient MIA cell and recovery mechanism, but it cannot do anything about our Korea MIAs until there is a diplomatic breakthrough. North Korea does not make bilateral concessions unless the other party offers something it wants - and what North Korea wants from Australia is re-establishment of its diplomatic representation in Canberra. That would seem to be a reasonable trade if it enabled us to recover our MIAs.

Professor Clive Williams is a visiting professor at the ANU’s Centre for Military and Security Law, and an adjunct professor at ADFA.