U.S. Pilot Stands By ‘Confession’ to N. Koreans

American military pilot Bobby Hall flew home to Florida on Friday after telling U.S. military officials that he stood by the handwritten “confession” he gave to his North Korean captors, a statement that many U.S. officials had believed was counterfeited in classic Cold War style for propaganda purposes.

Hall, held captive in North Korea for 12 days after his military helicopter veered into the demilitarized zone that separates North and South Korea, was to arrive at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa on Friday night, then drive home with his family to nearby Brooksville.

His release to American officials defused a crisis that had threatened a pending nuclear agreement with North Korea and jeopardized a recent diplomatic thaw in relations on the volatile peninsula.

Soon after he was freed, Hall told U.S. military aides that his widely publicized statement was “an accurate depiction” of his views on the Dec. 17 incident, according to a senior Pentagon official.

Hall’s written explanation, released by North Koreans on Wednesday, acknowledged a “criminal action” by flying into their airspace and was filled with other harsh language that led U.S. officials to believe that its aim was to demonstrate American transgressions. While that was clearly the North Koreans’ hope, Hall’s account suggested that the North Koreans finally gave up their attempts to get what they wanted.

Quoting Hall, the Pentagon official said the North Koreans had asked him for a statement and had “obviously wanted much stronger language” when he stated that he had unintentionally wandered into North Korean airspace. Although there was some “back and forth discussion,” the North Koreans ultimately accepted the account that Hall was willing to sign, the official said.

Hall was under some “mental duress” from simply being unexpectedly in the North Koreans’ hands, the official said. But he “was under no physical duress to sign the statement,” the official said.

He said Hall was generally “well treated” in North Korea, was “well fed, got lots of rest.” A medical examination in Seoul also showed him to be in good condition, officials said.

Pentagon officials asserted that Hall’s account supported the official U.S. view of the events--”he was lost and strayed unintentionally into North Korea,” as one official put it.

Hall’s debriefing also provided new details of the grounding of the aircraft, which killed Hall’s co-pilot, David M. Hilemon. But it left other mysteries unsolved.

Hall told military aides that, although the motor failed, forcing him to descend from a height of somewhat less than 1,000 feet, he saw no direct evidence that the North Koreans had fired on his helicopter. The helicopter apparently “did not break up in flight” nor did Hall see any tracer bullets, the official said.

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Pentagon officials said they believe that the helicopter was probably shot down, although they do not so far have enough evidence to say so conclusively.

However, the Associated Press, quoting an unidentified source, said that Hall told officials that he was the target of North Korean fire after straying across the border. Hall, according to the source, heard or saw some kind of explosion on Hilemon’s side of the helicopter--apparently from antiaircraft artillery fire or a surface-to-air missile.

Pentagon officials on Friday said that Hall was able to land the craft by maneuvering it while the blade continued to rotate, a technique that helicopter pilots practice during training. After it landed, the helicopter burned.

Pentagon officials also produced a chart showing navigational details of Hall’s flight over the 2,000-meter-wide demilitarized zone. The chart suggested that Hall veered from his course because he had mistaken a group of topographic features--rivers, roads and other terrain--for a spot referred to as Checkpoint 84.

But Hall was unable to shed any light on how his co-pilot died. Hilemon’s body was returned earlier this week to his family in Washington state. Results of an autopsy will not be available for another two weeks, officials said.

Nor have military officials made a decision on whether to charge Hall for losing his way on what they have described as a routine mission. Senior military officials in Korea are conducting a fact-finding mission on his conduct, but it is unclear when they will offer their recommendations to Secretary of Defense William J. Perry.

Hall was scheduled to undergo further debriefing as he flew Friday from Korea to Japan, and then to Alaska, before arriving in Florida. Hall was to spend the New Year’s holiday with his family before returning to duty at some future date.

At a news conference Friday morning, Hall’s wife, Donna, said that she eagerly anticipated a “very quiet, very private” reunion. In a phone call from South Korea before his departure, “he said he was treated fine,” she said.

Meanwhile, with Hall out of the North Koreans’ hands, U.S. officials were offering blunter assessments of what the North Korean regime had gained from holding Hall for nearly two weeks.

Winston Lord, assistant secretary of state, asserted that the North Koreans “didn’t achieve any of their objectives” with Hall’s detention. They wanted an official apology and to establish direct peace talks with the United States.

“None of these objective were achieved,” he said on the CBS “This Morning” program.

U.S. officials, who declared their “sincere regret” for the incident to gain Hall’s release, were more circumspect in their statements until he was freed.

Still unclear was how much Hall’s detention would cloud prospects for the $4-billion nuclear accord with North Korea, which comes to a vote in January in Congress. The complex deal would give North Koreans Western nuclear technology and a temporary fuel oil supply in exchange for giving up plutonium development and their nuclear weapons program.

While analysts from both political parties said they expect the Hall incident to raise new charges that the North Koreans cannot be trusted, most members who are criticizing the proposal are still not pledging outright opposition.

Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), hailing Hall’s return, stopped short of saying that he will oppose the accord. “Congress has a responsibility to determine if this deal, which includes legitimizing and providing assistance to the North Koreans, is in the best interests of the United States and the American people,” Dole said in a statement.

In South Korea, ambiguities in the agreement that led to Hall’s release provoked fears that the Pyongyang regime may manipulate the accord to its future benefit.

The Chosun Ilbo, a major Seoul-based newspaper, expressed concern in an editorial that U.S.-North Korean discussion of the prisoner issue “may infringe our sovereignty.”

“We have every right to be alerted,” the editorial said. “We suspect that the United States, having been obsessed with an early repatriation of Bobby Hall, may perhaps have made itself a weak negotiator.”

Concern in Seoul centers on U.S. agreement to try to avoid such incidents in the future through discussions in an “appropriate forum.” Many South Koreans fear that this may mean routine bilateral contacts between North Korean and U.S. military forces, a goal long sought by the North.

Ever since the 1950-53 Korean War, the Communist government in Pyongyang has sought to portray the key conflict on the Korean Peninsula as being between the North and United States. This stance is intended to relegate South Koreans to the role of virtual colonial subjects of the United States, thereby shifting the diplomatic balance of power to the benefit of the North.

Times staff writer David Holley in Tokyo contributed to this story.