Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 30, 1994 TAG: 9412300146
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
After three days of negotiations with President Clinton's envoy, the military regime agreed to release Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall. Hall, 28, who was shot down with co-pilot David Hilemon on Dec. 17, was to be given a medical examination and a military debriefing in Seoul before being flown home to Brooksville, Fla., today for a reunion with his family, U.S. officials said.
The body of Hall's copilot, David Michael Hilemon, 29, of Clarksville, Tenn., was returned last week. Hilemon died when the helicopter crashed.
The release followed two weeks of denunciations by the North Korean regime, which had called the flight a spy mission and demanded an American apology. The written statement containing the final deal with envoy Thomas Hubbard reflected the U.S. view that the aircraft had ``accidentally strayed'' across the border into hostile territory.
The United States expressed ``sincere regret for this incident'' and promised to work to prevent similar occurrences, said State Department spokesman Michael McCurry. Although that pledge fell far short of the apology North Korea had hoped for, North Korea's official announcement said Hall would be returned because the United States had ``accepted our demand.''
The U.S. strategy had been to acknowledge that an error had been made, but to give no sign it was willing to make concessions for Hall's release. In the final negotiations, North Koreans sought to win more concessions than they got, including an apology and direct peace talks with the United States, officials said.
News of Hall's impending release brought tears and cheers in his hometown and around the country, where sympathetic Americans had begun displaying yellow ribbons.
With the release, the Clinton administration seemed to have narrowly eluded a variety of calamities. As it dragged on into its third week, the situation had begun to look like the kind of long-running hostage crisis that can damage a presidency.
Perhaps more immediately, the incident threatened the $4 billion nuclear deal under which the North Koreans agreed to stop producing plutonium and halt nuclear weapons research and instead to use less-dangerous Western technologies for civilian nuclear power.
Secretary of State Warren Christopher warned that continued detention of Hall could have threatened the accord, which is to give the North Koreans huge stores of fuel as well as nuclear technology. The agreement still requires congressional approval.
U.S. officials said the efforts of Hubbard, a deputy assistant secretary of state, met a firm rebuff from a lower-level Korean foreign ministry official on Wednesday.
But on his second day, Hubbard met with Kang Sok Ju, first vice minister of foreign affairs, and talks began to move swiftly toward an agreement. The final deal was approved by what the North Koreans called ``the Supreme Leadership'' - an entity that the U.S. officials believed included the ailing Kim Jong Il, son of longtime dictator Kim Il Sung, and others.
by CNB