From the time of my initial posting on this subject in April 2001 until now, I've received a number of private replies, including one from the PanAm 727 rescue captain that flew to Leningrad-Murmansk-Helsinki to get the surviving passengers, the wounded and the two dead out of Russia.
Also, subsequently from my inital postings, the flight was KAL 902.
It is interesting how things come back to haunt you. This incident happened more than 20 years ago and I was on the ground as a foreign correspondent in Leningrad when the PA 727 came in to load up with first aid kits, water and the diplomats, Americans and Japanese, to do the negotiations, because at that time South Korea was not recognized by the USSR.
This very kind PA captain, now retired, gave me the whole story on the strange goings on during the flight to Murmansk with a Russian navigator (had to have one in those days) and I'm sure he didn't announce to Murmansk ATC that "Clipper 123 requests..." They wouldn't know what PanAm meant, much less what "Clipper" stood for.
Anyway, how the KAL aircraft ended up there in the north of Russia and why, is still not known. That they were forced down on a frozen lake is known. What happened to the B707 is not known, but as I posted before, with only a few bullet holes it could have been flown out again.