USS Pueblo

The USS Pueblo is a US ship that was captured by the DPRK on January 23rd 1968, just a day after increasingly high tensions between North and South Korea. It had left the Japanese port of Sasebo, Japan, on January 11th in order to intercept Soviet naval activity and gather North Korean electronic and signal intelligence. There are discrepancies between the US and the North Korean versions of this incident.

The US claims that the ship was miles into international waters and that they were forced into North Korean waters. The US state that once they stopped outside North Korean waters they were immediately shot upon and had no option but to continue. On the other hand the DPRK say that the vessel was well within North Korean waters when it was captured. One crew member was killed in the shootings involved.

Pueblo was taken into the port of Wonsan and the crew spent 11 months in North Korea until the US confessed that the ship was in fact spying on the DPRK and assured that it would never spy on North Korea again in the future. The 82 crew members were released and the US then verbally retracted the ransom admission, apology, and assurance.

The US navy vessel now lies in the Taedong River in Pyongyang as a major tourist attraction for both North Koreans and foreigners as a symbol of US aggression. Bullet holes from the incident are clearly marked on the vessel.