|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
North Korea -> PYONGYANG -> U.S.S. Pueblo U.S.S. Pueblo PYONGYANG, Pyongyang Municipality The USS Pueblo has been moored in the Taedong River since the late 1990s after having been towed there from Wonsan, the North Korean port on the east side of the Korean peninsula where it had been moored since its capture in 1968. The ship was engaged in spying off the east coast of North Korea in January, 1968, in international waters according to the crew and the U.S. government, but in North Korean territorial waters according to the North Koreans. Unfortunately it was in the wrong place at the wrong time in international politics and became a literal hostage to larger issues when the North Korean forces boarded it and captured the crew and the ship with its highly secret documents and equipment. One crew member was killed in the short conflict and the rest of the 82 crew members were held hostage in North Korea for eleven months before being released in December, 1968. The site where the Pueblo is moored also features several items from an ill-fated 1866 U.S. ship, the General Sherman. The Sherman apparently tried to force itself upon the Koreans along the Taedong River, but became stranded as the tide receded and were all killed by angry Koreans led, ostensibly, by the great-great grandfather of Kim Il Sung. The two incidents serve to convince the North Koreans of Americas long term imperialist interest in Korea. One of the Korean naval officers presently manning the ship was in charge of the boarding party that captured the Pueblo. |
|
|
||||||||||