N. Korea Returns Body of Aviator; Co-Pilot Still Held

Under bleak, wintry skies, North Korea today returned the remains of David Hilemon, the U.S. Army aviator killed when his helicopter was shot down after straying into the Communist nation’s territory.

In a brief, solemn ceremony at the truce village of Panmunjom on the heavily fortified demilitarized zone, North Korean army guards handed over the brown wooden casket bearing Hilemon’s body to a seven-member United Nations honor guard.

Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), who accompanied the remains over the demarcation line between North and South Korea, said Pyongyang had assured him that the U.S. pilot who survived the crash, Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall, would be returned “very soon.” Hall was training Hilemon when the pair lost their bearings over the treacherous terrain and mistakenly crossed the border Saturday.

U.S. officials said Wednesday that they now accept Pyongyang’s assertion that the helicopter was shot down by the North and had not crashed as a result of mechanical failure.

“The negotiations I held with the North Koreans were tough, were difficult,” Richardson said in a statement after today’s ceremony. “The arrangement we have is the best deal I could get. Under the agreement . . . Bobby Hall will return shortly, very soon--and I stress very soon.”

Richardson said he had not been able to contact Hall directly.

Pyongyang officials said they will not provide further information until they have completed their investigation, but a statement by the Korean Central News Agency said Hall is “now in good health.”

The carefully choreographed ceremony began promptly at 10 a.m. Against a stark backdrop of frozen turf and bare-limbed trees, more than a dozen North Korean guards, bundled in khaki overcoats and fur hats, stared across the border at the crowd of U.S. and South Korean soldiers in camouflage fatigues, several members of the United Nations Command and more than 40 journalists.

Marching up to the demarcation line, U.S. Col. Mark Shoemaker exchanged a scripted message about the remains with his North Korean counterpart, Col. Park Im Soo. Along with U.S. medical personnel, Shoemaker crossed the line, identified the remains and returned.

Guards from the North Korean People’s Army carried the plain wooden casket to the line and handed it to the U.N. honor guard, which placed it on a stand and draped the light blue flag of the United Nations over it.

A chaplain offered a moment of silence and a prayer for Hilemon for giving his life “for the cause of liberty.”

The ceremony took about 10 minutes.

Hilemon’s body will be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California. An autopsy will be performed, said Jim Coles, U.N. Command spokesman.

Richardson was scheduled to hold a news conference later today after meetings with U.S. and South Korean officials.

North Korea’s decision to return Hilemon’s remains came after heavy diplomatic pressure from Washington and a high-level meeting with U.S. military officials Wednesday at Panmunjom.

But with Richardson leaving Pyongyang to accompany Hilemon’s remains to South Korea and into U.S. military hands, questions remained over Hall’s fate.

Despite assurances given to Richardson about Hall’s imminent return, the North Korean Central News Agency said the aviator would be dealt with “according to the relevant legal procedures of our army.”

Two respected Japanese newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun and Nihon Keizai Shimbun, reported Wednesday that North Korea had rejected U.S. assertions of an accidental crossing and had concluded that the two pilots deliberately invaded the North’s airspace.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun quoted an unnamed North Korean diplomat in the United States as saying Hall will be treated accordingly. The diplomat rejected a link between the helicopter incident and U.S.-North Korean relations in general.

U.N. spokesman Coles could not confirm the reports, saying Pyongyang had not officially completed its investigation.

In Washington, White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers praised the decision to return Hilemon’s body, calling it a “humanitarian move” that “we certainly welcome.” She also expressed hope that Hall will be freed “in time for the Christmas holiday” Sunday.

Defense Secretary William J. Perry said that intense negotiations under way for Hall’s release had brought him “some hopes that that will happen soon. . . . I don’t want to say anything that might . . . compromise the discussions.”

The State Department, which had warned that U.S.-North Korean relations might be jeopardized if the pilots were not returned soon, adopted a low-key tone Wednesday.

Asked about the latest turn of events, department spokesman Mike McCurry said they were “encouraging and don’t suggest any disruption in the types of relations or arrangements that were foreseen” in the framework of a recently concluded nuclear accord with the North Koreans.

In another attempt by the Administration to make it easier politically for North Korea to release Hall, Perry conceded that the straying of the helicopter into North Korean airspace was “a mistake” that U.S. officials “for many reasons” now “regret.”

Even so, Perry added, “I do not believe that the mistake warranted shooting down the helicopter.”

The United States “wouldn’t have shot down (a North Korean) helicopter” in the same situation, he said after announcing that U.S. officials now accept the initial report from Pyongyang that the helicopter was shot down.

Perry offered no explanation on why North Korea had been so slow in meeting U.S. demands for the return of Hall and of Hilemon’s body.

But some analysts believe that the North Korean government is divided between hawks in the North Korean People’s Army who are intent on sabotaging the recently concluded nuclear deal and people in the Foreign Ministry eager to normalize relations with the United States.

Under the agreement reached in October, Washington pledged to arrange the delivery of two alternative nuclear reactors that would provide fuel to Pyongyang and to begin steps to normalize relations. Pyongyang, in turn, agreed to halt its nuclear weapons program eventually.

The drama began last week, when Hall took Hilemon out in the unarmed OH-38 Kiowa warrior helicopter to familiarize him with the mountainous terrain of the demilitarized zone.

A heavy snowfall that morning and the previous night had buried the markers signaling the “no-fly” zone.

South Korean troops who normally watch for aircraft drifting too close to the border were hunched in covered foxholes to protect themselves against freezing temperatures, U.S. military officials said.

Times staff writer Art Pine in Washington contributed to this story.