World Notes South Korea

The villagers working in paddy fields five miles south of the city of Iri were shocked to see a two-engine bomber circling overhead. It tried to land in a field and hit a farmer, killing him instantly, before coming to a halt a few yards short of a house. The Chinese pilot, Xiao Tianyan, 33, shouted for help; the navigator was dead. The radioman walked away with light bruises and asked to be sent home to China. Thus ended Navy Pilot Xiao's dramatic escape in his Chinese-built version of a Soviet Ilyushin Il-28. The pilot said he was dissatisfied with life in China because he had been passed over for promotion for not being a loyal party member. He was the fourth Chinese pilot to defect to South Korea in the past three years.

Xiao, who was taken to the hospital with injuries to his spinal cord and intestines, said he wanted to go to Taiwan. Earlier this year a Chinese torpedo boat and its crew, who had mutinied and tried to defect to South Korea, were sent home by the Seoul government. But this time South Korea has announced that only the navigator will be repatriated to China. Xiao will presumably be allowed to go to Taiwan.