Findings from an alleged secret report issued earlier this week by a South Korean politician stating that some passengers survived the downing of KAL Flight 007 in 1983 was refuted by a top-ranking American official, according to a Russian newspaper.


"The information that some people may be alive is a lie", U. S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was quoted as saying in Izvestia's Tuesday edition. "President Yeltsin said that there were no survivors and there is no reason to doubt


the words of the Russian government".


Boucher was referring to the recently released black-box transcripts and other classified documents pertaining to the ill-fated flight that was shot down by Soviet fighters off Sakhalin Island almost 10 years ago.


Earlier this week, South Korean opposition politician Soon Se-il said he had obtained other secret CIA documents which stated that the plane did not spiral out of control after being attacked, but instead took 10 minutes enabling pilots to land the carrier, the newspaper reported.