USS Pueblo and Modern History

By Choe Chong-dae

I was delighted to learn that North Korea has recently hinted at the possible return of the captured the U. S. Navy vessel ``Pueblo,’’ to New Mexico Governor and Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Bill Richardson and to other U.S. government officials, when they were given a tour of the Pueblo during their visit to Pyongyang last month. The Pueblo is currently on display as an educational tool of anti-American propaganda, and is located on the banks of the Taedong River, which runs through Pyongyang. It has been there ever since shortly after its capture, off of North Korea's coast, in 1968.

There have been, with some frequency over the years, periodic reports of North Korea's unilateral violations of its truce agreement with United Nations forces, escalating high tensions on the Korean Peninsula and causing concerns in the world community. Such violations have occurred numerous times, over the half-century or so since the armistice putting an end to overt hostilities from the Korean War went into effect, in 1953.

Among the many threats to peace on the Peninsula and violations of the armistice _ including the nuclear test performed last year by North Korea _ two shocking incidents still vividly come to the forefront of my memory.

On January 21, 1968, a team of 31 highly-trained North Korean commandos infiltrated the city of Seoul, and reached an area known as Segeomjeong, behind the Blue House (South Korea’s Presidential Residence), on a mission to assassinate then President Park Chung-hee. However, South Korean security forces repelled the North Korean assault, killing 29 of the raiders and capturing one; the final one was presumed to have escaped. During such fierce fighting, one South Korean police station chief and five civilians also sacrificed their lives, and many soldiers, officers and civilians were wounded.

Only a few days after the launch of the so-called ``Blue House Raid,’’ the North Koreans stunned the world again by hijacking the ``Pueblo,’’ a U.S. Navy ship on a routine mission to collect intelligence, off the coast of Wonsan, in North Korea. The North Koreans contended the Pueblo had violated its territorial waters: however, U.S. Navy records showed that the ship was in international waters when it was captured.

The attack resulted in the death of one American crew member, and several were wounded; 82 crew members were captured, and held in captivity under inhumane circumstances, for eleven months. It is ironic that even though the Pueblo is legally still the property of the U.S. Navy, the ship is on ``active duty’’ in the hands of a foreign power, for the purposes of use as a tool of political propaganda.

Meanwhile, after long and tough negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea, the Pueblo crew members were finally released and returned to their homes just before Christmas Eve in 1968, via the ``Bridge of No Return’’ at Panmunjeom, in the De-Militarized Zone's Joint Security Area. Thanks to my good friends in the Swedish Delegation to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission in Panmunjeom, I have visited this historic spot, namely the ``Bridge of No Return,’’ many times. Looking towards North Korea from the ``Bridge of No Return’’ during my last visit to Panmunjeom, I reminisced about the old scars on the ship inflicted by the attack four decades ago, and especially about the crew members, separated from their beloved families and suffering inhumane treatment in a North Korean prison.

The ship ``Pueblo’’ (the word ``pueblo’’ means ``people’’ or ``town,’’ in the Spanish language) was named in honor of the town of Pueblo, Colorado (U.S.A.), and this name has been a favorite of mine for a long time, because the town in Colorado was named after the ``Pueblo’’ Indian tribe, Native Americans who were the descendants of groups of Northeast Asian migrants (including ethnic Korean migrants) to the North American mainland. They migrated to the New World, by way of the Bering Strait (off of Alaska), during the Ice Age, around 25,000 years ago. The name of the ship, therefore, has a remote but clearly ascertainable historical relationship with the Korean people.

There had been no direct contact between Korea and the New World in recent millennia, up until the 19th century. Official contacts between the U.S. and Korea began with the landing of a U.S. ship off of the Korean coast, in 1866. The ``General Sherman,’’ an armed U.S. merchant marine ship, arrived that year on the Taedong River, near Pyongyang, attempting to open the door to trade with Korea, but ended up causing an armed conflict between the ship's crew and Korean soldiers, sacrificing the lives of several of the crew members of the ship.

Coincidentally, a U.S. Navy ship named after the state of ``Colorado’’ landed at Ganghwa Island (Korea) in 1871, in order to clearly establish trade links and a trade treaty with Korea. However, due to communication failures between the U.S. and Korea, clashes occurred in the nature of what is known in Korean as the ``Little War’’ or the ``Shinmiyangyo’’ _ the Invasion of the American Fleet in Korea in 1871. The result was a lopsided victory for the Americans.

As a token of victory, the U.S. Navy captured a remarkable trophy, a Korean Yellow Battle Flag, from Kanghwa Island. The battle flag had been flying atop a mountain fort, and was a large yellow battle flag with unique Korean symbols, indicating the authority of Korean General Uh Je-Yeon, commander of the garrison on Kanghwa Island. Currently, the old flag is on display at the U.S. Naval Academy, in Annapolis, Maryland (U.S.A.).

Although nearly 150 years have passed since the Americans captured the old Yellow Battle Flag of Korea, and nearly 40 years have passed since the North Koreans captured the ``Pueblo,’’ I do hope that one day soon these two ``trophies’’ can be returned back to their respective homes as soon as possible, setting aside the gloomy past and contributing to the opening of a new era of friendship between the U.S. and the Korean people.

Choe Chong-dae is the president of Dae-Kwang International Co., the Korean representative of Compagnie Cotonniere, of Paris (France). He is also a longtime director of the Korean-Swedish Association.