U.S. officials pressed North Korea to return a captive American pilot and the body of his colleague during a half-hour meeting Tuesday at the Korean War truce village of Panmunjom.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, was revising procedures for flights along the Korean border to avoid similar incidents.The aviators' unarmed observation helicopter went down Saturday in North Korea after they became disoriented and strayed into North Korean air space while on a routine flight, U.S. military officials have said. It is still not clear whether they were shot down or made an emergency landing.
Tuesday, U.S. officials met with North Koreans to try to win the release of Chief Warrant Officer Bobby Hall of Brooksville, Fla., and the body of Chief Warrant Officer David Hilemon of Clarksville, Tenn.
American officials gave the North Koreans a statement requesting details about Hall's condition and asking for the immediate return of the pilot and his dead colleague, said U.S. military spokesman Jim Coles. The North Koreans provided no new information and the United States has asked for another meeting as soon as possible, he said.
"The positive thing is they accepted the message," Coles said.
The message was transmitted through the U.S.-led U.N. Command Military Armistice Commission, which oversees the 1953 truce between the two Koreas from the South Korean side.
By casting the issue as something to be resolved by the United Nations and North Korea, Washington hopes to avoid high-level contacts with the communist government in Pyongyang.
Several countries, including China, have been asked to intervene with North Korea on behalf of the United States, U.S. officials said.
The last U.S. radio contact with the helicopter indicated the pilot believed he was still in South Korea, when in fact he was about 3.5 miles inside North Korean territory, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.
Heavy snow had fallen the night before. U.S. officials have speculated the pilots may have become disoriented because the snow may have covered navigational placards on the ground and made landmarks difficult to identify.
Reviews have also been ordered for training procedures.