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C-MIN 137/15
aviation was clearly at the vanguard of technological developments, due regard must be given to the human factors as well.
13. The Representative of France recalled that in 1983 his Delegation had presented a resolution aimed at ensuring the safety of aircraft during interceptions. This resolution had been adopted by the Council and was one of those referred to in C-WP/9685. The French Delegation had also presented a proposal which had led to the convening of an Extraordinary Session of the Assembly and to the amendment of the Chicago Convention. It was therefore understandable that the French Delegation could not be indifferent to the request now under discussion, which it supported. The Representative of France wished to thank the authorities of the Russian Federation for the decision they had taken to make the flight data recorders available to ICAO in accordance with the resolutions addressed to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in September and December of 1983.
14.
The Chief Observer from the Republic of Korea thanked the President and Members of the Council of ICAO for having kindly invited his Delegation to participate in the Council's discussions, and for giving him the personal privilege of addressing this august body. He also expressed, on behalf of the Korean Delegation, the deepest respect to the President of the Council for his outstanding leadership and total dedication to ICAO and the basic principles of the Chicago Convention in serving the Organization and its Contracting States.
14.1 The Chief Observer from the Republic of Korea recalled that his Government, together with certain others, had called the Council into an Extraordinary Session on the 15th and 16th of September 1983 to consider the KAL 007 tragedy which had shocked the international community. With the President's prompt response and brilliant leadership, the ICAO Council had adopted a Resolution on the 16th of September 1983 which, inter alia, directed "the Secretary General to institute an investigation of the tragedy (...)". However, the investigation had not been completed, as mentioned in paragraph 2.9 of the final report presented by the Secretary General on 2 December 1983, because some important material had not been provided. Recently, Boris Yeltsin, the President of the Russian Federation, had expressed his firm determination-which the Republic of Korea highly appreciated-to clarify the circumstances of the ill-fated KAL 007 tragedy, and had promised to hand over all materials available, including the originals of the CVR and DFDR tapes.
14.2 On 8 and 9 December 1992, Delegations of the Governments of the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, the United States of America and Japan had held meetings in Moscow at the invitation of the Russian Government and had agreed to request the International Civil Aviation Organization to complete the investigation, to determine the facts and technical aspects related to the KAL 007 tragedy. ICAO, as an unbiased, internationally respected organization, was in the best position to undertake this task.
14.3 Ten years had passed since the tragedy had occurred, taking 269 innocent lives, and efforts to bring the facts to light could not be delayed any longer. It was his Delegation's firm belief that completion of the investigation of the incident would contribute to promoting the safe and orderly development of civil aviation in the world and to preventing the recurrence of such a tragedy in the future. In this regard, the Republic of Korea respectfully requested that the Members of the ICAO Council take action for the purpose of completing the inquiry into this incident. For this purpose, the Republic of Korea was prepared to co-operate closely with ICAO and with other countries involved. The Chief Observer from the Republic of Korea concluded by expressing the gratitude of his