Pilot bound for Taiwan

Press, 31 August 1985, Page 10

Pilot bound for Taiwan

NZPA-Reuter Seoul South Korea said yesterday that it would allow a Chinese pilot who crashlanded his bomber in a ricefield to seek political asylum in Taiwan. The Information Minister, Mr Lee Wong Hong, said that the radio operator of the Soviet-designed bomber would be repatriated to Peking, also at his request. The body of the plan’s navigator, killed when the aircraft crash-landed last week, will be returned to China also.

Mr Lee said judicial action would be taken against the pilot, Xiao Tianrun,

aged 33, for violating South Korean air space but i'id not say what form the action would take. A farmer working in the paddyfie.d was killed when the plane came down.

“The necessary notified consultations will be continued to determine the methods, procedures and timing for the return of the aircraft and its crew members,” he added.

China has demanded the return of both crew members and has protested at Seoul’s decision to allow the pilot to go to Taiwan.

Peking said that the plane made an emergency landing after disappearing during a training flight off China’s east coast.

China said that it deeply regretted Seoul’s decision in a statement that Western diplomats described as “extremely restrained.” A Chinese Foreign Ministry statement said: “The Chinese side once again de-

mands the South Korean authorities return the entire crew of that aircraft to our side.”

Taiwanese officials welcomed the defection and said they were grateful to South Korea for the decision. Xiao, like other defecting Chinese pilots, is expected to get a large reward.

Seoul, which has no diplomatic ties with Peking, had been reported holding delicate separate talks with China and Taiwan on the issue.

The pilot told Korean interrogators that he had planned to defect since 1980. He fooled his crew, telling them the rudder was broken and he needed to make an emergency landing about 170 km south of Seoul.

The pilot is the latest in a string of Chinese defectors to embarrass both South Korea and China.

The two countries are quietly trying to improve their relations, non-existent for most of the past 30 years.