Best printers for Home

Best Mixer Grinder

Best wired Earphones

Best 43 Inch TV in India

Best Wi Fi Routers

Best Home Theatre in India

Smart Watch under 5000

Best Laptops for Education

Best Laptop for Students

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In January 1968, US Navy <keyword id="10632595" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="spy-ship">spy ship</keyword> <keyword id="6178269" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="USS-Pueblo">USS Pueblo</keyword> left Japan for a normal operation off the coast of <keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword>, where it could eavesdrop on North Korean and Soviet communications.</li><li>Days later, however, the Pueblo's mission was interrupted by the North Korean navy, which seized the ship in a deadly attack.</li><li>More than 50 years later, Pueblo remains on display in Pyongyang, a symbol of the lasting enmity between the US and North Korea.</li></ul><p>Every day, the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang proudly displays a number of war trophies taken from US and UN forces during the Korean War.</p><p>But one of the main attractions was seized 14 years after the armistice was signed on July 27, 1953.</p><p>Moored on the Pothong River, the USS Pueblo features captured US Navy uniforms, flags, encryption machines, and written confessions by its crew, who were <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB278/US_Cryptologic_History--The_Capture_of_the_USS_Pueblo.pdf" target="_top">fired on</a> in <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">international</keyword> waters and taken into custody by North Korea on January 23, 1968.</p><p>The incident shocked and embarrassed the US Navy, the National Security Agency, and the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson.</p><h2>A routine mission in a tense hotspot</h2><div type="image" title="US Navy USS Pueblo North Korea" height="933" width="1400" msid="80388716" hostid="261"></div><p>Pueblo was a small spy ship fitted with electronic equipment designed to eavesdrop on North Korean and Soviet communications.</p><p>On January 11, 1968, Pueblo set out of Sasebo, Japan, for an intelligence-gathering mission off of North Korea's east coast. At the time, this type of operation was not viewed as particularly risky; almost every country conducted similar missions, and Pueblo was ordered to stay at least 12 miles to 13 miles off the coast in order to remain in international waters.</p><p>Pueblo also had no escort, as the US military was focused on Vietnam, where fighting and troop numbers had been steadily increasing since 1965.</p><p>But the Korean Peninsula was still extremely tense. North Korean soldiers mounted <a href="https://www.armyupress.army.mil/journals/military-review/english-edition-archives/november-december-2019/anderson-korean-dmz/" target="_top">periodic infiltrations</a> and killed a number of American and South Korean soldiers, and the violations of the armistice were increasing. The US and UN Command recorded 50 such violations in 1966. From the beginning of 1967 to the time of Pueblo's capture, that number skyrocketed to 610.</p><p>The attacks were also growing more brazen. Two days before Pueblo's capture, 31 North Korean commandos unsuccessfully assaulted the South Korean president's official residence in Seoul, killing dozens of South Koreans and four Americans.</p><h2>Assault on the Pueblo</h2><div type="image" title="USS Pueblo" height="1500" width="2000" msid="80388717" hostid="261"></div><p>Pueblo arrived in its area of operation on January 12 and encountered no problems until January 20, when a North Korean submarine chaser spotted it. Two days later, two North Korean trawlers started following it.</p><p>The next day the North Koreans were more aggressive. The sub chaser returned, circled Pueblo, and questioned Pueblo's nationality. Pueblo, which had been flying the international signal flag for hydrographic operations, responded by hoisting an American flag.</p><p>Having figured out that Pueblo was an intelligence ship, the chaser signaled "heave to or I will open fire." It was then joined by four torpedo boats, who promptly surrounded the Pueblo. Two MiG-21s had also joined the operation and were circling overhead.</p><p>Pueblo's commanding officer, Lt. Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, ordered the ship to sail farther out to sea. A chase ensued, but Bucher ordered his men not to man Pueblo's two .50-caliber machine guns, as he did not want to provoke the North Koreans. He believed that as he was in international waters, the North Koreans would not open fire, and that Pueblo could escape.</p><p>Pueblo's chief communications technician requested permission to destroy sensitive documents, which his superior denied. The technician ordered his unit to begin destruction anyway, but it was too late.</p><h2>The North Koreans open fire</h2><div type="image" title="US Navy sailors USS Pueblo North Korea propaganda" height="856" width="1400" msid="80388720" hostid="261"></div><p>At 1:32 p.m., two hours after initial contact, the sub chaser opened fire with its 57 mm cannons. Almost simultaneously, the four torpedo boats raked Pueblo with machine-gun fire, immediately wounding two of its crew, including Bucher, who finally ordered the destruction of sensitive material.</p><p>That destruction effort faced immediate problems. The crew had not been trained to destroy everything properly, and the ship had so many documents that the incinerator was overloaded. Pueblo radioed for help, but the Navy had no available ships, and the Air Force was unable to respond in time.</p><p>Under fire and with no aid coming, Bucher accepted the North Koreans' demand to follow them to the coast. He briefly stopped to buy time for the destruction process but was immediately fired on again by the North Koreans. Four crewmen were wounded, one of whom later died.</p><p>Out of options, Bucher radioed his intention to surrender. After following the North Korean escort for almost a half-hour, Pueblo was finally in North Korean waters and was boarded.</p><h2>A massive propaganda victory</h2><div type="image" title="North Korea USS Pueblo" height="1333" width="2000" msid="80388722" hostid="261"></div><p>The capture of Pueblo and its 82 surviving crew was a massive propaganda victory for the North Koreans. Every four days a "confession" of wrongdoing by a crew member was aired on North Korean television, and pictures of surrendering Americans were displayed at every opportunity.</p><p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9ZPCwDeSFU" target="_top">Some</a> of the documents the North Koreans presented were clearly forged or altered; a visual contact log, for instance, showed that Pueblo had traveled 500 miles in 12 minutes, and listed coordinates that would have put it some 32 miles inside North Korea itself.</p><p>But the crew was unable to destroy the majority of the classified material they had aboard, making it one of the worst intelligence losses in history.</p><div type="image" title="Korea USS Pueblo" height="1877" width="2980" msid="80388725" hostid="261"></div><p>For 11 months, the crew were subject to countless acts of torture, including beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of execution. They initially resisted making confessions; in one show of defiance, they raised their middle fingers during photo sessions, telling their captors it was a Hawaiian symbol for peace.</p><p>The Johnson administration was thoroughly embarrassed. Military action was considered, but it would've endangered the crew and risked reigniting the Korean War. Moreover, just a week after Pueblo was taken, the Tet Offensive started in Vietnam, drawing US attention away.</p><p>Johnson did send additional aircraft carriers and aircraft to the Sea of Japan and South Korea, but the US ultimately agreed to admit wrongdoing in order to secure the crew's release nearly a year later.</p><p>Pueblo remains an <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di2eZIX-ZQM&amp;feature=emb_titleitle" target="_top">important symbol</a> for North Korea today. Pyongyang casts the ship as an example of North Korea standing up to the imperialist Goliath and winning without losses. Pueblo is the second oldest US Navy ship <a href="https://www.nvr.navy.mil/SHIPDETAILS/SHIPSDETAIL_AGER_2.HTML" target="_blank" rel="noopener">officially in service</a> and the only one in the custody of an adversary.</p>

Why North Korea still shows off the US spy ship it captured in a deadly attack more than 50 years ago

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Some Russian kids will attend North Korea's Songdowon International Children's Camp this summer.</li><li>The camp features propaganda activities, such as cleaning leaders' statues and singing Korean songs.</li></ul><p><em>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Yuri Frolov, 25, who in 2015 and 2016 attended North Korea's Songdowon International Children's Camp, where some </em><a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-school-kids-go-north-korea-summer-camp-putin-kim-2024-7"><em>Russian children will be sent this summer. </em></a><em>The following has been edited for length and clarity.</em></p><p>When I was a kid, I remember watching a TV documentary about <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-intensify-the-arms-race-between-north-and-south-korea-2024-7">North Korea</a>. Although I was very young, my perception of the country was that it was under siege by its capitalist neighbors.</p><p>I knew little; I wanted to see it with my own eyes.</p><p>I tried to find more information, so I subscribed to a group called "Solidarity with North Korea" on VKontakte — Russia's equivalent to Facebook.</p><p>In it, the Communist Party of the Russian Federation offered a chance to go to a <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-children-north-korea-summer-camp-kim-putin-2024-7">North Korean children's summer camp</a> for about $300.</p><p>That included food, accommodation, all the facilities, plane tickets, and everything else — really cheap for a 15-day trip.</p><p>I saw it as an opportunity to see North Korea for myself, so I asked my parents, who agreed to send me to Songdowon.</p><p>I traveled alone from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russia-economy-politics-putin-nepo-baby-daughters-st-petersberg-forum-2024-6">St. Petersburg</a>, where I grew up, to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-oligarch-superyacht-docks-vladivostok-sanctions-ukraine-billionaire-putin-nord-2022-3">Vladivostok,</a> in the far east of Russia, where I joined a group of other children and some Communist Party officials. At 15, I was one of the oldest; the others were 9, 10, and 11.</p><p>I was probably the only one traveling to <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bleak-images-show-snapshots-daily-life-north-korea-2024-3">North Korea to see this dystopia</a>. The others seemed to see it as a chance to go to the beach or play in the playground inexpensively.</p><div type="image" title="View of Pyongyang" height="720" width="960" msid="111462293" hostid="261"></div><p>First, we spent two days in <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/abandoned-hotel-north-korea-ryugyong-photos-2019-11">Pyongyang</a>, where we were constantly supervised.</p><p>We visited many places, including Kim Il Sung Square and the war museum where they displayed captured American vehicles as well as <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-captured-us-navy-spy-ship-uss-pueblo-1968-2021-1">the USS Pueblo</a>, the American ship that was seized by the North Koreans in the 1960s.</p><p>They kept pushing us into supermarkets so that we'd spend some money.</p><p>What was funny was that it was really easy to buy vodka and cigarettes.</p><p>Some kids in our group, as young as 12, bought North Korean rice vodka, brought it back to the camp, and got extremely drunk on the first couple of nights.</p><div type="image" title="The main building of the Songdowon International Children's Camp" height="720" width="960" msid="111462287" hostid="261"></div><p>Upon arriving at Songdowon, the staff was very welcoming, cheering us on while they stood in a long line.</p><p>About five buses of children arrived. Though most of us were Russian, there were also groups of children from Laos, Nigeria, Tanzania, and China.</p><p>However, the North Korean children in the camp were quite segregated from us, and we only met them once on our last day.</p><p>I think that was deliberate, preventing them from talking with us about their experiences.</p><p>The summer camp had many activities, such as beach outings, sandcastle-building competitions, and swimming. However, it also had some really weird rituals.</p><p>We had to clean statues of North Korea's former leaders. One morning, we woke up at 6 a.m. to clean the monuments of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il.</p><p>We didn't have sponges or anything — we were just brushing off the dust, even though the monuments were cleaned professionally every week. It was strange.</p><p>We also had to participate in concerts, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tiktok-hooked-on-song-praising-north-koreas-dictator-kim-jong-un-report-2024-5">singing propaganda songs</a> in Korean about North Korea's Supreme Leaders, using lyric sheets translated into Russian.</p><div type="image" title="The concert hall where campers at Songdowon International Children's Camp sang songs about North Korea's leaders." height="720" width="960" msid="111462285" hostid="261"></div><p>They tried to brainwash us in many ways. We played a computer game where your character, a hamster in a tank, had to destroy the White House.</p><p>One kid became so indoctrinated afterward that he joined the Communist Party in Russia and was always posting about North Korea.</p><p>For me, it didn't work — the propaganda was too straightforward.</p><p>Also, I was too frustrated with the strict schedule to be brainwashed. For example, when I was sick, they wouldn't let me skip early-morning exercise.</p><p>The food was also really bad. The only things I could eat were rice, wedges, and bread.</p><p>I lost about 11 pounds in 15 days, even though I was already skinny.</p><p>After leaving, I craved capitalist food so badly that I bought three Burger King burgers, two large fries, and a cola. It was impossible to eat all that, but I just wanted it so bad.</p><p>Despite the boring, miserable and overly controlled experience, I returned the next year. I don't like confrontation, and the Communist Party officials had already signed me up, so I went again.</p><p>It was a stupid decision to return, and I don't know why my parents let me go, but I'd totally do it again.</p><p>I can easily make friends just by talking about my experiences — people just want to hear about North Korea.</p>

I stayed at a North Korean summer camp. We polished statues and played a game where we destroyed the White House.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>In January 1968, North Korean commandos slipped across the border into South Korea.</li><li>They were headed to Seoul on a secret and daring mission to kill South Korea's president.</li></ul><p>Just before midnight on January 17, 1968, 31 North Korean special forces soldiers cut through a wire fence along the demilitarized zone and infiltrated South Korea without detection.</p><p>The commandos, part of a specially trained force called Unit 124, had one objective: kill South Korean President Park Chung-hee.</p><p>Their plan was to covertly make their way to the presidential residence, a 62-acre compound known as the Blue House in Seoul's Jongno district.</p><p>Once there, they would bypass the outer checkpoints and then conduct an all-out assault on the main building. A little more than 300 yards from their target, however, everything fell apart.</p><h2>At a boiling point</h2><div type="image" title="US troops North South Korea border DMZ" height="1342" width="2000" msid="97235779" hostid="261" sizebytes="884068"></div><p>Tensions on the Korean Peninsula were approaching a boiling point by January 1968. While the US and <a href="https://www.historynet.com/koreas-myth-making-marines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">South Korean</a> militaries were increasingly focused on the Vietnam War, North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung seemed dead-set on reminding the world that the Korean War had not officially ended.</p><p>Violent incidents along the DMZ <a href="https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/DOC_0001218147.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">increased</a> from 42 in 1966 to 360 in 1967 — including at least 100 firefights that killed 63 US and South Korean servicemen and wounded 190 more. (That year, the US military classified Korea as a hostile fire zone, making US troops there eligible for combat medals.)</p><p>Infiltrations into South Korea, both across the DMZ and by sea, by North Korean agents and commandos were also increasing. Their primary objective seemed to be setting up guerrilla camps in South Korea's remote highlands.</p><p>The infiltrations were largely unsuccessful. Up to 15,000 South Korean police and military personnel were involved in detecting and hunting down the infiltration teams.</p><div type="image" title="South Korean Army anti-infiltration strike force" height="1390" width="1853" msid="97235781" hostid="261" sizebytes="280632"></div><p>By fall 1967, South Korean security forces reported killing 130 infiltrators and capturing 43 more, taking more than 130 casualties of their own in the process.</p><p>Around that time, the commandos of Unit 124 — elite troops who had been handpicked by the North Korean military's top brass — were finishing their training in North Korea.</p><p>They were trained in infiltration, navigation, hand-to-hand combat, and guerrilla warfare. Their preparations were grueling and dangerous.</p><p>They were sent on runs for dozens of miles while carrying as much as 60 pounds of gear in freezing temperatures at high altitudes. Some candidates lost toes or whole feet to frostbite. One member of the unit has said they were trained <a href="https://www.scmp.com/article/628615/seoul-survivor" target="_blank" rel="noopener">to dig into graves</a> and hide among the bodies for concealment and that their training was so intense they sometimes <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QDsKJ4zRGg&amp;ab_channel=VICEAsia" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shot and stabbed</a> each other.</p><p>In the lead-up to the mission, members of Unit 124 practiced assaulting a full-size mock-up of the Blue Palace.</p><h2>The raid</h2><div type="image" title="The presidential Blue House is seen on March 10, 2017 in Seoul, South Korea." height="2110" width="3165" msid="97235782" hostid="261" sizebytes="1091130"></div><p>Each of the 31 commandos carried a submachine gun, a pistol, 320 rounds of ammunition, 14 grenades, and a knife. They wore South Korean military uniforms and carried civilian clothes to blend in if they couldn't avoid crowds.</p><p>They traveled at night and slept during the day, covering as much as 7 miles every hour when on the move. Two days into their trek through the mountains, they were discovered by four brothers who were out cutting wood.</p><p>Unable to deceive the brothers, the commandos took them captive. They had orders to kill any witnesses, but digging graves in the frozen ground would have been almost impossible. Ultimately, the majority of the unit voted to let them go.</p><p>The brothers were given a lecture on the benefits of Communism, promised that their liberation was at hand, and forced to pledge not to inform the authorities.</p><div type="image" title="market in Seoul South Korea" height="671" width="1024" msid="97235783" hostid="261" sizebytes="143844"></div><p>Unfortunately for the commandos, the brothers immediately told the authorities and the entire country was put on alert. Thousands of South Korean soldiers and police mobilized to locate the infiltrators.</p><p>Despite the alarm and several more close calls, the commandos remained undetected and reached the Segeomjeong–Jahamun checkpoint, just over 300 yards from the Blue House, shortly before 10:00 p.m. on January 21.</p><p>Wearing their South Korean uniforms, they approached the checkpoint in a double-file line. They were stopped by three policemen who, aware that there were infiltrators in the area, were suspicious.</p><p>The police demanded to know what the men had under their coats, which would have revealed that they were carrying Soviet-made weapons unlike those used by the South Koreans or Americans. The commandos instead opened fire, starting a massive shootout.</p><div type="image" title="South Korea North Korea Seoul Blue House raid" height="630" width="840" msid="97235784" hostid="261" sizebytes="27062"></div><p>South Korean soldiers soon arrived in huge numbers along with a tank that the commandos had no weapons to take out. In the chaos, the commandos attacked a passing bus carrying civilians, believing they were arriving soldiers, killing multiple passengers.</p><p>Having taken casualties of their own and realizing that their mission was hopeless, the commanding officer ordered the commandos to disengage, scatter, and make for North Korea.</p><p>Seoul launched an all-out manhunt. By January 29, all but two of the commandos had been killed or had committed suicide. The South Koreans managed to capture one commando, Kim Shin-jo, while the other, Pak Jae Gyong, escaped to North Korea.</p><h2>Legacy</h2><div type="image" title="US Army casket memorial funeral" height="630" width="840" msid="97235786" hostid="261" sizebytes="59292"></div><p>During the raid and ensuing manhunt, 68 South Koreans and three American soldiers were killed.</p><p>After cooperating with South Korean authorities, Kim Shin-jo was released in 1970 and received South Korean citizenship, which led North Korean officials to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-korea-spy-20100718,0,5046450,full.story" target="_blank" rel="noopener">execute</a> his parents and siblings. He is still alive today. Pak Jae Gyong, meanwhile, became a four-star general in the North Korean military.</p><p>North Korea never acknowledged its involvement in the raid, insisting it was organized by South Koreans, but even North Korea's communist allies <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/new-romanian-evidence-the-blue-house-raid-and-the-uss-pueblo-incident" target="_blank" rel="noopener">had no illusions</a> about Pyongyang's role.</p><p>South Korea attempted to organize its own commando squad to kill Kim Il Sung, but the effort backfired and the commandos <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/the-many-failed-attempts-to-kill-the-leaders-of-north-korea-2017-7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rose up against their handlers</a>.</p><div type="image" title="North Korean Army special operations Unit 525 Blue House" height="1333" width="2000" msid="97235787" hostid="261" sizebytes="202514"></div><p>The raid was quickly overshadowed by North Korea's seizure of the US spy ship USS Pueblo on January 23, 1968. The ship is <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-captured-us-navy-spy-ship-uss-pueblo-1968-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">still on display in Pyongyang</a>. At the end of January, American attention shifted to Vietnam, where North Vietnamese forces had <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tet-offensive-us-victory-but-turned-americans-against-vietnam-war-2021-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">launched the massive Tet Offensive</a>, which would change American views of the war.</p><p>North Korea no longer sends death squads across the DMZ — though it has practiced <a href="https://www.nknews.org/2016/12/n-korea-conducts-military-drills-targeting-s-korean-presidential-office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">raids on a replica</a> of the Blue House — but it continues to menace South Korea's leaders.</p><p>In 2015, Pyongyang <a href="https://www.scmp.com/news/asia/east-asia/article/1849589/north-korea-threatens-turn-seoul-sea-fire-because-foolhardy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">warned</a> that it could turn South Korea into "a sea of fire" if Seoul did not stop activists from sending balloons carrying leaflets into the North.</p><p>In December, a North Korean drone <a href="https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230105001500325?section=national/defense" target="_blank" rel="noopener">flew into</a> a no-fly zone around South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol's office in Seoul. It was one of five North Korean drones that flew into South Korea, the first to do so in five years.</p><p>The drones spent five hours over the South before returning home — an incursion that comes amid a record number of North Korean missile tests meant to show off <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-missile-tests-show-off-underground-military-facilities-2022-12" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the growing reach of its expanding arsenal</a>.</p>

55 years after sending a hit squad on a deadly raid in Seoul, North Korea has found new ways to threaten South Korea

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28705377@N04/4634638484/">John Pavelka</a></p><p class="caption">A photo of the ship docked in Pyongyang from 2010.</p></div><keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword> is planning to put the captured US <keyword id="42407" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Navy">Navy</keyword> ship USS Pueblo in a new war museum being constructed in Pyongyang, <a href="http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201302/news21/20130221-37ee.html">the official news agency KNCA reports</a>.</p>
<p>Construction on the museum, titled the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum, is beginning now.</p>
<p>Kim Jong Un visited the site this week, <a href="http://www.kcna.co.jp/item/2013/201302/news21/20130221-37ee.html">KNCA reports</a>. The North Korean leader reportedly said the museum will serve as a base for "anti-U.S. education".</p>
<p>The USS Pueblo was captured in 1968. Whether or not the ship was in North Korean waters is a subject of dispute between the US and North Korea, but an ensuing 11-month long hostage crisis — <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100703890.html">which saw North Korea torture the captured crew</a> — was a low point of the Cold War and became known as the Pueblo affair.</p>
<p>The ship had previously been docked on the Taedong River in Pyongyang.</p>
<p>Officially the Pueblo is <a href="http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/AGER2.htm">still a commissioned vessel</a>. It is the only Navy ship currently being held captive.</p>

North Korea To Show Off Captured US Navy Ship In Its New War Museum

<p><div class="image-container float_right" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/28705377@N04/4634638484/">John Pavelka</a></p></div>As the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-moving-warship-closer-to-north-korea-in-response-to-threats-2013-4">U.S. Navy increases pressure</a> on <keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword> with a guided missile destroyer moving closer to their shores, American <keyword id="6359526" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Military">military</keyword> leaders will likely reflect on a similar move 45 years ago that resulted in an 11-month hostage crisis.</p>
<p>On January 23, 1968, in international waters <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB278/03.PDF">more than 15 miles</a> from North Korea, the USS <em>Pueblo,</em> an electronic intelligence ship, was surrounded by sub chasers and torpedo boats, with MiG jets overhead.</p>
<p>Capt. Lloyd Bucher, the commanding officer, had his teletype operator send a <a href="http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB278/03.PDF">frantic message</a> to forces in Japan:</p>
<p>"Have been requested to follow into Wonsan [North Korea]. Have three wounded and one man with leg blown off. Have not used weapons nor uncovered 50 cal MG [machine gun]. Destroying all key lists and as much [electronic equipment] as possible. How about some help, these guys mean business."</p>
<p>But help never arrived and there was little chance of escape.</p>
<p><span>The sailors on the <em>Pueblo</em> were rounded up and put in prison camps. While the North produced propaganda footage showing fair treatment, the reality was much worse. The crew endured starvation and torture for nearly a year.</span></p>
<p><span><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/07/AR2009100703890_5.html?sid=ST2009100703955">Donald McClarren</a><span>, a sailor on the <em>Pueblo</em>, later testified about his harsh treatment, as reported in the Washington Post. After enduring torture, he thought he was going to be killed:</span></span></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;"><span><span>"And as I sat there, the officer that was behind the chair pulled out his gun and put it to my head and went 'click.' And the thought that went through my mind then was, 'Am I going to hear the bang and is the bullet going to hurt when it hits?' And I went blank."</span></span></p>
<p>Since he was the commanding officer, Capt. Bucher was threatened with execution and beaten repeatedly. He held out but was finally forced to give in after being told his crew would be executed one by one if he did not confess to spying, <span>according to </span><a href="http://www.usspueblo.org/Prisoners/335_Days.html">The USS Pueblo Veterans Association</a>.</p>
<p><div class="image-container float_left" style="width:400px"><div class="image"></div><p class="source"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pueblo_crew_on_122368.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></p><p class="caption">The crew of the USS Pueblo walk across "The Bridge of No Return" after their release on Dec. 23, 1968</p></div>With the Vietnam war raging, there was never a military response aimed at Pyongyang. Instead, President Lyndon Johnson used diplomacy to free the men, engaging in direct talks with the North.</p>
<p>To secure their ultimate release on Dec. 23, 1968, the United States agreed to apologize for violating North Korean territory, admit to spying, and give the North an assurance of never spying again, <a href="http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/navalbattles1900today/p/Cold-War-Uss-Pueblo-Incident.htm">according to About.com.</a></p>
<p>The ship is now a North Korean <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1626579.stm">tourist attraction</a> in Pyongyang, and remains the only captured <a href="http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/details/AGER2.htm">active, commissioned ship</a> in the U.S. fleet.</p>

North Korea Has Been Holding This US Navy Ship Captive For 45 Years

<p><em><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge"><div class="image"><a title_source="Kristoferb" title_caption="The USS Pueblo on May 30, 2009" class="zoomin" href="http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/51f104ff69bedda12800002d-960/800px-uss_pueblo_1.jpg"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a><p class="source">Kristoferb</p><p class="caption">The USS Pueblo on May 30, 2009</p></div></div><keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword> unveiling its greatest Cold War prize: captured US Navy spy ship USS Pueblo</em></p>
<p>PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — If there was ever any doubt about what happened to the only U.S. Navy ship that is being held by a foreign government, North Korea has cleared it up. It's in Pyongyang. And it looks like it's here to stay.</p>
<p>With a fresh coat of paint and a new home along the Pothong River, the USS Pueblo, a spy ship seized off North Korea's east coast in the late 1960s, is expected to be unveiled this week as the centerpiece of a renovated war museum to commemorate what North Korea calls "Victory Day," the 60th anniversary this Saturday of the signing of the armistice that ended hostilities in the Korean War.</p>
<p>The ship is North Korea's greatest Cold War prize. Its government hopes the Pueblo will serve as a potent symbol of how the country has stood up to the great power of the United States, once in an all-out ground war and now with its push to develop the nuclear weapons and sophisticated missiles it needs to threaten the U.S. mainland.</p>
<p>Many of the crew who served on the vessel, then spent 11 months in captivity in North Korea, want to bring the Pueblo home. Throughout its history, they argue, the Navy's motto has been "don't give up the ship." The Pueblo, in fact, is still listed as a commissioned U.S. Navy vessel, the only one being held by a foreign nation.</p>
<p>But with relations generally fluctuating in a narrow band between bad to dangerously bad, the United States has made little effort to get it back. At times, outsiders weren't even sure where North Korea was keeping the ship or what it planned to do with it.</p>
<p>Requests for interviews with the captain of one of the North Korean ships involved in the attack were denied, and officials here have been tight lipped about their plans before the formal unveiling.</p>
<p><div class="image-container" style="width:800px"><div class="image"><p class="source"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USS_Pueblo_(AGER-2).jpg">Wikipedia</a></p></div></div></p>
<p>The Pueblo incident is a painful reminder of miscalculation and confusion, as well as the unresolved hostilities that continue to keep the two countries in what seems to be a permanent state of distrust and preparation for another clash, despite the truce that ended the 1950-1953 war.</p>
<p>Already more than 40 years old and only lightly armed so it wouldn't look conspicuous or threatening as it carried out its intelligence missions, the USS Pueblo was attacked and easily captured on Jan. 23, 1968.</p>
<p>Surrounded by a half dozen enemy ships with MiG fighter jets providing air cover, the crew was unable to put up much of a fight. It scrambled to destroy intelligence materials, but soon discovered it wasn't well prepared for even that.</p>
<p>A shredder aboard the Pueblo quickly became jammed with the piles of papers anxious crew members shoved into it. They tried burning the documents in waste baskets, but smoke quickly filled the cabins. And there were not enough weighted bags to toss all the secret material overboard.</p>
<p>One U.S. sailor was killed when the ship was strafed by machine gun fire and boarded. The remaining 82, including three injured, were taken prisoner. The North Koreans sailed the Pueblo to the port of Wonsan.</p>
<p>For the survivors, that's when the real ordeal began.</p>
<p>"I got shot up in the original capture, so we were taken by bus and then train for an all-night journey to Pyongyang in North Korea, and then they put us in a place we called the barn," said Robert Chicca of Bonita, Calif., a Marine Corps sergeant who served as a Korean linguist on the Pueblo. "We had fried turnips for breakfast, turnip soup for lunch, and fried turnips for dinner. ... There was never enough to eat, and personally I lost about 60 pounds over there."</p>
<p>Although the ship was conducting intelligence operations, crew members say that most of them had little useful information for the North Koreans. That, according to the crew, didn't stop them from being beaten severely during interrogations.</p>
<p>"The Koreans basically told us, they put stuff in front of us, they said you were here, you were spying, you will be shot as spies," said Earl Phares from Ontario, Calif., who was cleaning up after the noon meal in the galley when the attack began. "Everybody got the same amount of beatings in the beginning."</p>
<p>North Korea said the ship had entered its territorial waters, though the U.S. maintained it was in international waters 15 miles off the nearest land.</p>
<p>The incident quickly escalated. The U.S., already deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War, sent several aircraft carriers to the Sea of Japan and demanded the captives be released. Just days before the attack, North Korean commandos had launched an assassination attempt on South Korea's President Park Chung-hee at his residence.</p>
<p>North Korea responded by putting members of the crew before cameras to confess publicly. The crew members planted defiant codes into forced letters of confession and extended their middle fingers in images sent around the world. That led to further beatings when the North Koreans figured out the gesture's meaning.</p>
<p>On Dec. 21, 1968, Maj. Gen. Gilbert H. Woodward, the chief U.S. negotiator, signed a statement acknowledging that the Pueblo had "illegally intruded into the territorial waters of North Korea" and apologizing for "the grave acts committed by the U.S. ship against" North Korea. Both before and after, he read into the record a statement disavowing the confession.</p>
<p>The hostages were released across the Demilitarized Zone that divides the two Koreas two days before Christmas — 335 days after their capture.</p>
<p>The Navy considered a court-martial for the ship's captain, Cmdr. Lloyd M. "Pete" Bucher, for letting the Pueblo fall into enemy hands without firing a shot and for failing to destroy much of the ship's classified material. But he was never brought to trial. John H. Chafee, secretary of the Navy at the time, said Bucher and the other crew members "had suffered enough."</p>
<p>To this day, members of the Pueblo crew say Bucher made the right decision, though years later his second-in-command publicly questioned Bucher's decisions not to fight.</p>
<p>"It would have been nice to take out some of the guys, some of them, and maybe go down fighting, but it would have been total suicide," said Phares. "We never thought anything would happen, and we weren't supposed to create an international incident."</p>
<p>In 2002, former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Donald P. Gregg said a North Korean foreign ministry official hinted at a deal to return the Pueblo. But when he later visited Pyongyang, he said he was told the climate had changed and a return was no longer an option.</p>
<p>In January the next year, Colorado Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell reintroduced a resolution in Congress asking North Korea to return the ship. There has been no progress since, however, at least none that has been made public.</p>
<p>"The ship was named after Pueblo, Colorado, and they would have loved to have the ship back," Chicca said. "It's very disappointing to have it still there, and still being used as anti-American propaganda."</p>
<p>The planned display of the ship by North Korea hangs over the heads of the crew members who have long campaigned for its return.</p>
<p>"I'll never give up, but I don't think it's ever coming back," Phares said. "It's just unfortunate that we got put in that situation, and that the top brass blamed us, or blamed Bucher, for everything."</p>
<div class="nc_footer">
<p>Copyright (2013) <keyword id="176712" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Associated-Press">Associated Press</keyword>. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.</p>
</div>
<p></p>

The Story Of How A US Spy Ship Became A North Korean Trophy

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Multiple fast-attack vessels from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps came close to a US Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, forcing it to change direction, a US official told Reuters on Monday.</p><p>The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the IRGCN boats came within 600 yards of the USNS Invincible, a tracking ship, and stopped.</p><p>The Invincible was being accompanied by three ships from British Royal Navy and forced the formation to change course.</p><p>The official said attempts were made to communicate over radio, but there was no response and the interaction was "unsafe and unprofessional."</p><p>Lawrence Brennan, a former US Navy captain and an expert on maritime law said the Invincible is a scientific research vessel and was unlikely armed except for "small arms for self <keyword id="6354810" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Defense">defense</keyword>."</p><p>Part of the Invincible's mission is to record sonar emissions from ships and record them, so as to devise countermeasures to disrupt adversary communication should a time of war arise.</p><p>The Invincible carries out a similar mission to the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/russian-spy-ship-us-submarine-base-2017-2" target="_blank">Russian spy ship that sat outside a US submarine base in Connecticut.</a></p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"This generic type of unarmed ship has been a target a number of times," said Brennan citing attacks on the USS Liberty and Pueblo as examples of similar harassment.</p><p>However, the Iranian navy and IRGC Navy have made a habit of harassing US ships near the Strait of Hormuz, and experts contacted by Business Insider believe that Iran provided Yemeni Houthi rebels the means to carry out a <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/houthi-suicide-boat-iranian-attack-2017-2" target="_blank">suicide boat attack on a Saudi Arabian navy vessel</a> that killed two sailors. </p><p>This attack made the US Navy acutely aware of the danger from Iran's swarming ships, which the US Navy has had to resort to<a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/us-navy-fires-warning-shots-on-approaching-iranian-ships-during-incident-in-the-strait-of-hormuz-2017-1" target="_blank"> firing warning shots at before</a>.</p><p>The US recently tested the efficacy of using <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/a-10-attack-craft-iran-us-navy-2017-3" target="_blank">A-10 Warthog guns and percision-guided munitions</a> dropped from jets on Iranian fast-attack craft like the ones that harassed the Invincible on Saturday. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/aclu-lawyer-never-talk-to-the-police-rights-pulled-over-politics-cops-law-arrest-2017-2">An ACLU lawyer tells us why you should be careful talking to the police after being pulled over</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="xmYjZwOTE6sqA4olxkqtkm7I2PmRtdt6" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A swarm of Iranian fast-attack boats forced a US Navy ship to change course in the Persian Gulf

<p class="source"><span>CNN</span></p><p class="caption">Fred Warmbier holds a press conference in the jacket his son stood trial in in North Korea.</p>The father of Otto Warmbier, the US student <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/north-korea-releases-american-otto-warmbier-as-dennis-rodman-arrives-2017-6" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">detained by North Korea and medically evacuated to his family in a coma</a>, gave a press conference on Thursday morning and called for Kim Jong Un's regime to be held responsible.<p>Otto Warmbier, who was detained for attempting to steal a propaganda banner from a hotel in North Korea, came back home on Tuesday in "bad shape," having been in a coma since shortly after his trial.</p><p><span>The </span><a href="https://twitter.com/annafifield/status/874626160780615681">Warmbier family told The Washington Post's Anna Fifield</a><span> that the North Koreans told them Otto was stricken with botulism after his trial, took a sleeping pill, and had not woken up since. But now, <a href="http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2017/06/15/otto-warmbiers-parents-speak-10-a-m-thursday/397647001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">doctors are saying</a> it looks more like a "severe neurological injury."</span></p><p>Wearing the jacket his son stood trial in, Fred Warmbier addressed a crowd in Cincinnati  on Thursday and dispelled some of the myths around his son's release.</p><p>"Dennis Rodman had nothing to do with Otto," said Warmbier, referencing the high-profile trip the former NBA superstar to North Korea took the same day Otto was released. "It's a diversion ... this is all planned."</p><p>Instead, he said, Otto's release stemmed from the work of US diplomats in the State Department.</p><p>"Last evening we received a very nice phone call from President Trump who told us that Secretary of State Tillerson worked hard to help bring Otto home. We are extremely grateful for their efforts and concern," Warmbier said.</p><p>Warmbier also expressed dissatisfaction with the "pariah regime in North Korea" that "terrorized and brutalized" Otto for 18 months in an <a href="http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/06/14/otto-warmbier-north-korea-released-coma-father-talks-tucker-carlson" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson</a>.</p><p class="source"><span>Thomson Reuters</span></p><p class="caption">FILE PHOTO - Otto Warmbier attends a new conference in Pyongyang North Korea</p><p>"They're brutal. There's no sense to anything here," he told Carlson. "They've crossed a line with my son, Otto."</p><p>In Cincinnati, Warmbier criticized the world's approach to North Korea.</p><p>"I don't see a tough approach to North Korea. They're still able to take Americans hostage and abuse them. They're still able to be terrorists in the world," he said.</p><p>"It started with prisoners of the Korean war, it extended to the USS Pueblo, and now it extended to my son Otto," he added, referencing North Korea's 1968 capture of 83 US Navy sailors and their subsequent torture and captivity. </p><p>Warmbier expressed mixed feelings about his son being home.</p><p>"I would like to highlight this morning the bittersweet feeling that my family has. Relief that Otto is now home in the arms of those who love him, and anger that he was so brutally treated for so long."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/war-ian-bremmer-north-korea-donald-trump-nuclear-2017-6">IAN BREMMER ON NORTH KOREA: Trump could either start a war or win a Nobel Peace Prize</a></h3>                                    Please enable Javascript to watch this video

'They've crossed a line with my son': Father of US student detained by North Korea speaks out

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShpW9qCuwGE">Youtube</a></p></div><p></p></div></div><keyword id="13473" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Korea">North Korea</keyword> arrested and detained an elderly U.S. citizen last month, who they now say is a "criminal" due to his military <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/merrill-newman-north-korea-2013-11">service during the Korean War in the fifties</a>, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>Merrill Newman, 85, who was visiting the country as a tourist, was pulled off a plane right as he was about to leave the country on Oct. 26. Now, he's one of two American citizens currently being held inside the country.</p>
<p>Korea Central News Agency released Newman's "apology." It's unknown whether he wrote this willingly or he was coerced, although the Hermit Kingdom has been known to demand apology letters in the past.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-how-a-us-spy-ship-became-a-north-korean-trophy-2013-7">In order to secure the release of 82 hostages in 1968</a>, <span>Maj. Gen. Gilbert H. Woodward signed a statement acknowledging that the USS Pueblo had "illegally intruded into the territorial waters of North Korea" and apologized for "the grave acts committed by the U.S. ship against" North Korea.</span></p>
<p>KCNA has also released <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShpW9qCuwGE">video of Newman reading the statement.</a></p>
<p><strong>Here's Newman's letter:</strong></p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I am Merrill Newman living in California, USA.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">During the Korean War, I have been guilty of a long list of indelible crimes against DPRK government and Korean people as advisor of the Kuwol Unit of the UN Korea 6th Partisan Regiment part of the Intelligence Bureau of the Far East Command.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">As I gave 300 people with barbarity gone to the South who had ill feelings toward the DPRK from Chodo military education and guerilla training they later did attack against the DPRK although the armistice was signed.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I also gave 200 soldiers under my command in Mt. Kuwol the task to harass the rear base such as collecting information on the movement and the arm equipment in KPA, attacking and destruction on the communication system, the rice storage, railroad and munitions train by dispatching the several elements to Hwanghae Province Area.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">According to my order they collected information of the KPA and attacked the communication system and killed 3 innocent operators, delayed the munitions supply using explosives obtained from attacking the mine and they attacked the KPA and harassing operations of the rear base 10 times in the Hwanghae Province Area.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">They killed about 50 soldiers in the process of the operation. In the process of following tasks given by me I believe they would kill more innocent people.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">As I killed so many civilians and KPA soldiers and destroyed strategic objects in the DPRK during the Korean War, I committed indelible offensive acts against the DPRK government and Korean people.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Although 60 years have gone by, I came to DPRK on the excuse of the tour as a member of 33 Tour Group from U.S. on October 17, 2013.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Shamelessly I had a plan to meet any surviving soldiers and pray for the souls of the dead soldiers in Kuwol Mt. during the Korean war. Following the itinerary I asked my guide to help me look for the surviving soldiers and their families and descendents because it was too hard for me to do myself.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">If I had the opportunity to visit Kuwol Mt. I was going to pray for the souls of dead soldiers. If I saw surviving soldiers in Mt. Kuwol, I was going to connect them with the members of the Kuwol Partisan Comrades-in-Arms Association which I had already connected with, anti-Communist strategic plot organization.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">All the members of the Kuwol Partisan Comrades-in-Arms Association escaped from the DPRK to South Korea. So I asked the guide to help me to look for their families and relatives living in DPRK and I gave the document written with their address and e-mail address to the guide in the Yanggakdo Hotel.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I also brought the e-book criticizing the Socialist DPRK on this trip and criticizing DPRK.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Although I committed the indelible offensive acts against the Korean people in the period of the Korean War, I have been guilty of big crimes against the DPRK government and Korean People again.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I realize that I cannot be forgiven for my offensives but I beg for pardon on my knees by apologizing for my offensives sincerely toward the DPRK government and the Korean people and I want not punish me.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Please forgive me.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">I will never commit the offensive act against the DPRK Government and the Korean People again.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">On this trip I can understand that in US and western countries there is misleading information and propaganda about DPRK.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">If I go back to USA, I will tell the true features of the DPRK and the life the Korean people are leading.</p>
<p style="padding-left: 30px;">Merrill Newman<br />Nov 9, 2013</p>
<p>via KCNA (h/t <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/north-korea-publishes-apology-letter-from-detained-american">BuzzFeed</a>)</p>

You Searched For "USS Pueblo" and got 9 results

Why North Korea still shows off the US spy ship it captured in a deadly attack more than 50 years ago

Benjamin Brimelow

I stayed at a North Korean summer camp. We polished statues and played a game where we destroyed the White House.

Joshua Zitser

55 years after sending a hit squad on a deadly raid in Seoul, North Korea has found new ways to threaten South Korea

Benjamin Brimelow

North Korea To Show Off Captured US Navy Ship In Its New War Museum

Adam Taylor

North Korea Has Been Holding This US Navy Ship Captive For 45 Years

Paul Szoldra

The Story Of How A US Spy Ship Became A North Korean Trophy

Eric Talmadge, Associated Pre…

A swarm of Iranian fast-attack boats forced a US Navy ship to change course in the Persian Gulf

Reuters,Alex Lockie

'They've crossed a line with my son': Father of US student detained by North Korea speaks out

Alex Lockie

Here's The 'Apology Letter' North Korea Claims Was Written By The 85-Year-Old Veteran Being Held Hostage

Paul Szoldra

Popular Keywords

Buying Guides