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US Navy Warship ‘Seized’ By North Korea During Intelligence Gathering Mission Must Be Returned: US Lawmaker

A US lawmaker has introduced a resolution calling for the return of a US Navy ship seized by North Korea 55 years ago.

The US representative for Florida’s 17th congressional district, Rep. Steube Gregory, introduced a resolution last week that calls for the return of the USS Pueblo seized by North Korea on January 23, 1968.

The House “maintains North Korea’s seizure of the vessel USS Pueblo and its detention of the crew were in violation of international law,” says the resolution.

The resolution also adds the House “declares that USS Pueblo is the property of the United States government and should be returned to the United States.”

On January 21, North Korea’s official newspaper Rodong Sinmun reported that Pyongyang would wipe out “not only a port or an airfield of a warmonger or invader but their entire land if a second USS Pueblo enters our territorial waters again.”

The USS Pueblo and its 83 crew members were detained during an intelligence gathering mission in the East Sea for Naval Intelligence and the National Security Agency. It was posing as an environmental research vessel when it sailed into international waters off North Korea’s eastern coast.




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The USS Pueblo, a US naval intelligence ship captured by North Korea in 1968, docked on the Taedong River in Pyongyang. (Twitter)

The proposed resolution argues the ship had “strict orders to remain at all times at a distance more than 13 nautical miles from the near point in North Korean territory, to avoid any possible incident.”

“The United States has no reason to believe the orders were not obeyed,” adding the ship was carrying three 50-caliber machine guns at the time of its seizure but that not a single shot had been fired.

One of the crewmembers, Fireman Duane Hodges, died on the day when North Korea seized the Pueblo. His body and the other 82 crew members were returned to the US in December 1968 after an 11-month detention in the North.

The crew and their families had lodged a damage suit against North Korea in 2018 for the “mental and physical abuse” they were subjected to during their detention.

Also, a US federal district court ruled against North Korea in 2021, ordering it to pay over $2 billion or a minimum of $3.35 million to compensate each of the crewmembers detained.

America Oblivious To North Korea’s Plans

It was the height of the Cold War, and the US was already engaged in Vietnam War. A few thousand miles away, US troops were still fighting a ‘previous’ war on the Korean Peninsula that was believed to have ended in 1953 with the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

However, North Korea did not think so. Therefore, sporadic engagements between the North and South continued along the DMZ even after the 1953 armistice, and eventually, the North became bold to fire on American soldiers.

With the US military strength heavily invested in Vietnam, North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung wanted to create so much trouble for the US that it would give up protecting South Korea.

Also, only three days before its seizure of the Pueblo, North Korea deployed a team of 31 commandos that snuck into Seoul in an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate South Korean President Park Chung-hee.

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