Vice President Mike Pence honored the more than 5.8 million Korean War veterans during a ceremony at the national memorial Thursday, where he presented a flag used in the honorable carry ceremony of fallen American troops returned to Hawaii from North Korea last month.

The ceremony, which comes one day before National POW/MIA Recognition Day, was a solemn reminder of the 8,177 troops who were listed as missing in action during the Korean War and the 7,747 who remain unaccounted for.

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The flag presented was among those draped on 55 caskets of remains of Americans who served in the war, marking the first tangible result of the June summit between the United States and North Korea.

Remains of the servicemembers began returning home Aug. 1. Pence said the American government remains committed to continuing to bring missing Americans home.

The vice president said he knew right away where to display the flag presented to him.

“It was my great honor to receive it,” Pence said. “And when I was presented this flag by Rear Adm. Jon Kreitz at Joint Base Hickam, Pearl Harbor, I knew where it belonged. It belonged here on this hallowed ground, at the Korean War Veterans Memorial.”

The war claimed the lives of 36,574 Americans. An armistice was signed July 27, 1953, though the war has not officially ended.

“For while it was initially called a police action, then it was called the Korean conflict, those who lived it and those fought it know, in every sense of the word, it was a war,” Pence said. “America's best and bravest answered the call. They did, as history records, defend a country they never knew and a people they never met.”

Amanda Dolasinski is MOAA's staff writer. She can be reached at amandad@moaa.org. Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMOAA.