NEWS ANALYSIS : N. Korea Frees U.S. Copter Pilot : Asia: He is handed over in Panmunjom after being held 13 days. Tense negotiations end, may yield direct contacts. Clinton, while pleased, criticizes Pyongyang for delay.

North Korea today released an American helicopter pilot shot down 13 days ago, ending a crisis that threatened a fragile peace in one of the world’s most dangerous corners.

Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall, looking serious and tense, was escorted by North Korean army officers to the truce village of Panmunjom at 11:16 a.m. (6:16 p.m. Thursday PST). After a pause, he took a single step across the border into South Korea, saluted the U.S. military officer who received him, then shook his hand. He appeared to be in good health.

Hall, shot down with co-pilot David Hilemon on Dec. 17, was whisked by helicopter to Seoul for a medical examination and military debriefing. He was due to fly home to Brooksville, Fla., today to join his family. Hilemon died when the helicopter crashed.

Hall, 28, quickly spoke by telephone with his parents and with President Clinton, who expressed pleasure at the release but criticized Pyongyang for not acting more quickly.

“Chief Warrant Officer Hall was held for too long after his helicopter strayed off course on a routine training mission,” Clinton told reporters at the White House. “But we are very glad that he . . . is now in freedom. . . . His medical condition is currently being evaluated. But we had a good visit, and he said he is feeling well.”

Hall’s father, Bobby Hall Sr., told reporters that his son sounded “tired, upbeat, ready to come home.”

“He said he was doing good,” the elder Hall said. “He’s well and in good physical shape, and we look forward to seeing him.”

Clinton said the agreement on Hall’s release contained nothing to compromise any U.S. commitments. Some observers have felt that Pyongyang was trying to draw Washington into contacts that might undercut American commitments to South Korea.

“The terms of the agreement are clear from their own words. We were faithful to all of our commitments to our allies and to our commitments to our own policies,” Clinton said.

Hall’s release followed two weeks of denunciations by the North Korean regime, which had called the flight a spy mission and demanded an American apology. But the written statement containing the final deal with State Department envoy Thomas Hubbard, who spent three days in Pyongyang negotiating Hall’s freedom, reflected the U.S. view that the aircraft had “accidentally strayed” across the demilitarized zone and into hostile territory.

The United States expressed “sincere regret for this incident” and promised to work to prevent similar occurrences, said State Department spokesman Mike McCurry. But that pledge fell far short of the apology that the North Korean regime had hoped for.

Indeed, the only U.S. concession seemed to be in language that said the United States and North Korea would work to find a forum for preventing such occurrences in the future. That language opened the possibility that the two countries would begin communicating directly on such issues, as the North Koreans have wished, rather than through the 40-year-old multilateral Military Armistice Commission or the United Nations.

The North Koreans believe such direct channels would give their regime added legitimacy. But U.S. officials stressed that the possibility of direct talks--sure to upset the South Koreans--has not been resolved. They said they intend to press to have such disputes handled through existing channels rather than through new direct contacts.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry issued a statement welcoming Hall’s release and expressing hope that it might lead to increased South-North dialogue.

“This incident has reaffirmed the reality of military confrontation in the Korean peninsula,” the statement noted. “We urge North Korea to remove this abnormal situation by resuming South-North dialogue and improving the South-North relationship.”

*

North Korea’s official announcement of the deal came in a radio broadcast in which the regime said Hall would be returned because the United States had “accepted our demand.”

Clinton called Hall’s wife late Thursday afternoon and said, “We’ve been successful.” Donna Hall was “a little bit teary,” another official said. “You could hear shouting with delight.”

News of Hall’s impending release also brought tears and huzzahs from supporters in Brooksville and across the country, where sympathetic Americans had begun displaying yellow ribbons, just as they did in hostage incidents past.

With the release agreement, the Clinton Administration seemed to have narrowly eluded a variety of calamities. As it nearly dragged on into a third week, with hopes rising and then falling, the situation had begun to look like the kind of long-running hostage crisis that can do terrible damage to 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. That accord’s critics, led by newly powerful congressional Republicans, had begun to question openly whether the United States should deal with the unstable regime.

Secretary of State Warren Christopher had also 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, who is a deputy assistant secretary of state, met a firm rebuff when he met with a lower level North Korean Foreign Ministry official on Wednesday. As some Americans had expected, the North Korean official “squawked . . . and things went nowhere.”

U.S. officials interpreted that brusque treatment as a device to placate hard-liners, including those from the military, who oppose the nuclear accord and want to show the United States that North Korea will not be pushed around.

But on the 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 U.S. officials believed included Kim Jong Il, son of longtime dictator Kim Il Sung, and others who were not identifiable.

Looming throughout the crisis was the question of whether the North Korean regime was directed by a coherent leadership group, or whether it consisted of no more than feuding factions. The episode seemed to show, U.S. officials said, that, while there were clearly different groups with bitter disagreements, a leadership group is making decisions.

The U.S. strategy had been to acknowledge that an error had been made, but to give no sign that they were 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 talks with the United States, officials said.

The North Koreans did not, however, try to renegotiate any terms of the nuclear accord, U.S. aides said.

Hall’s release came one day after the North Koreans released a long, handwritten statement that they described as a confession by Hall asking forgiveness for “a flagrant violation of international law.”

U.S. officials took the statement as a sign the North Koreans were ready to release Hall but wanted to save face with a public statement that would seem to acknowledge mistakes by the Americans.

U.S. officials noted that details of the navigational route included in Hall’s purported confession seemed to corroborate American claims that the pilots were under instructions to stay away from North Korean airspace and had simply strayed.

The body of the co-pilot, Hilemon, 29, of Clarksville, Tenn., was returned last week.

Hall’s supporters across the country were jubilant.

In Sacramento, retired Army Sgt. Ken Knox had decided to keep his Christmas lights burning until Hall was released. That set off a chain reaction throughout his neighborhood that eventually drew the attention of the national television media.

“This is fantastic,” Knox said Thursday when he heard news of the release. “I just think it’s great it all ended so well.”

At the Publix supermarket in Brooksville, where Hall once rang up sales, the cash registers were adorned with yellow bows, and each cashier wore a yellow ribbon.

Julia Jenkins, who knew Hall when he was a young bag-boy at the Publix Store, said she was “just shaking. I’m so happy--it’s beautiful to hear this.”

In an interview with Cable News Network, Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), who brought Hilemon’s remains out of North Korea last week, said of Hall: “I think he’s a real American hero for the way he took this . . . with a lot of grace and fortitude.”

Holley reported from Tokyo and Richter from Washington. Times researcher Chi Jung Nam in Seoul, Times staff writer Virginia Ellis in Sacramento, special correspondent Mike Clary in Miami and researcher Edith Stanley in Atlanta contributed to this report.