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North Korea invited the United States on Monday to send forensics experts to an area where the communist government says it unearthed hundreds of human remains that may be American servicemen killed in the Korean War.

The Pentagon said the offer is under review.

To bolster its claim that the remains are American, North Korea released a name from a military identification tag it said was found among the remains. The name is Charles E. Sizemore. According to Pentagon records, Sizemore was a soldier from Rush County, Ind., who went missing on Nov. 2, 1950 - a date that coincides with major clashes in the part of North Korea where the remains are claimed to have been found.

Last week the North Koreans informed U.S. officials last week that it had found approximately 415 sets of human remains during bulldozing operations at a land reclamation project. It invited the United States to retrieve the remains in Pyongyang, the North Korean capital. The Pentagon balked, saying it needed more details about the discovery.

On Monday, Li Gun, deputy North Korean representative at his country's mission at the United Nations, said in a telephone interview the Korean People's Army had invited the Pentagon to send a ``fact-finding team'' to the land reclamation project to verify that the remains are those of American servicemen.

``It's up to the U.S. side,'' Li said.

Li sent a letter Monday to Alan Liotta of the Pentagon's POW-MIA office conveying what he described as a message from the Korean People's Army. The letter questioned whether the Pentagon was serious about recovering war remains.

``If the U.S. refuses to recover the remains at this time, it should be responsible for the consequences resulting therefrom,'' the letter said. Li provided The Associated Press with a copy of the letter.

Kenneth Bacon, spokesman for Defense Secretary William Cohen, said the Pentagon was reviewing Li's offer.

``We are committed to identifying and returning remains of Americans who served in the Korean or any other war,'' Bacon said. ``Our policy is that the return of remains is a humanitarian act and should be decoupled from politics or extraordinary payments. We look forward to working with the North Koreans to return remains in accordance with our policy.''

Li said the land reclamation project, which he said was known as land rezoning in North Korea, was temporarily suspended in certain areas to enable a U.S. fact-finding team to verify the human remains.

``The KPA cannot postpone the rezoning indefinitely, and therefore the U.S. side should come to the site and make a decision without delay,'' the letter said.

It added that the remains unearthed so far include military identification tags, buttons and helmets, as well as personal belongings.

Li said last Friday that approximately 415 sets of human remains were uncovered in December and January in an area of North Pyongan province, where large areas of land are being cleared to create farmland. He said it is likely that many more remains will be found before the reclamation project is completed.

About 8,200 U.S. servicemen are listed as missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, and the Pentagon has said it believes a few thousand are potentially recoverable from North Korea. In U.S. recovery operations over the past few years, 42 sets of remains have been recovered. Negotiations on arranging joint recovery operations for this year broke down in December after the North Koreans demanded that the United States donate materials and equipment for children's clothing factories.

Li said that in the view of the Korean People's Army, the United States is defeating its own purpose by refusing to talk about humanitarian assistance as part of the remains recovery operation.

``If the U.S. is to resolve the (remains) issue, it should hold talks or, if not, do as it wishes,'' he wrote in the letter to Liotta.