TNAG-2855-FCO40-4108-Hong-Kong-compensation-claim-regarding-Korean-Air-Lines-Flig-1993 — Page 217

25 March 1993

BY FAX

Mr Anthony Ng

Immigration Department HONG KONG.

RE

Foreign & Commonwealth

Office

London SW1A 2AH

Telephone: 071-

186/1.

دار

REVIVAL OF KAL-007 COMPENSATION CLAIMS

ECISTRY

ion Tuke

1. Further to my letter of 9 March, I have investigated the question of representation at ICAO meetings. The UK does have a permanent representative on the ICAO Council in Montreal, who is a member of the Diplomatic Service. The representative sends us reports of each ICAO meeting. Reports of special ICAO meetings (such as the one in Paris at which the Russians handed over the KAL-007 tapes) are submitted to the ICAO Council, and these are reported as well. Thus you may like to reassure the next-of-kin when the next occasion arises that the UK is firmly plugged in to all the ICAO discussions and that our representative is fully briefed on the KAL-007 issue.

2.

I have now seen the report of the meeting in Moscow between Russian officials and representatives of the Japanese, Korean and American Families Associations. The families agreed and presented a summary position paper to the Russians. The Russians repeated their public line that the governments of the USA, Japan and South Korea were all contributorily negligent to the disaster. As the wreck of the aircraft lies in international waters, the Russians are happy for an underwater retrieval effort to be made but have declined to pay for it. They have, however, offered to pay for a memorial. They emphasised that it was extremely unlikely that any human remains would ever be recovered.

3. In practical terms, little will happen now until the ICAO publish their report in early summer (probably May). The report will be purely technical in nature but no doubt it will provoke further debate. It remains highly unlikely that any one party will admit liability for the disaster. I think that one of the most important things we should do is dampen any expectations which the next-of-kin might have about receiving compensation, recovering any remains, and so on. It would be cruel to encourage them to build up their hopes on such uncertain ground.