Condemnation of USSR spurned by Gromyko

September 8, 1983

Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko spurned international condemnation Wednesday of the shooting down of a Korean airliner, charging it deliberately violated ''sacred'' Russian airspace on a spy mission for the United States. Mr. Gromyko's speech at the European security conference meeting was the highest-level response by the Kremlin since the Soviet fighter shot down the Korean Air Lines jetliner last a week before.

The USSR, meanwhile, stepped up its campaign blaming the US for the entire incident. Daily newspapers put what US officials described as a Soviet ''confession'' on their front pages but devoted much more space inside to a barrage of reports alleging the plane was on a spying mission for Washington. In Seoul, 100,000 people jammed a stadium for the memorial service of the 269 victims aboard the jet.