USS Pueblo (AGER-2)
USS Pueblo (AGER-2) is a
United States ship, famous for being boarded and captured by small number of soldiers of
Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1968, when the DPRK stated that she strayed into their territorial waters, in what is known as the
Pueblo incident. The USS
Pueblo, still held by DPRK today, remains a commissioned vessel of the
US Navy.
The ship was launched at the
Kewaunee Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in
Kewaunee, Wisconsin, on
16 April 1944 as
U.S. Army cargo ship FS-344. She was transferred to the
U.S. Navy in 1966 and was renamed USS
Pueblo. Initially, she served as a light cargo ship, AKL-44, but shortly after resuming service was converted to an intelligence gathering ship, or what is colloquially known as a Spy Ship, and re-designated AGER-2 on
13 May 1967. AGER (Auxiliary General Environmental Research) denoted a joint Naval and
National Security Agency (NSA) program.
Pueblo displaced 895 tons (909 metric tons) and was powered by twin diesel engines, giving her a top speed of 12.7 knots (23.5 km/h). She was armed with two
Browning .50-caliber
machine guns and had accommodations for 6 officers and 70 enlisted men.
After training operations off the
U.S. West Coast,
Pueblo left for
Yokosuka,
Japan on
November 6,
1967. She arrived at
Pearl Harbor,
Hawaii on
November 13,
1967.
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USS Pueblo docked in Pyongyang, DPRK. |
In January 1968, DPRK forces seized the
Pueblo. US Naval authorities insist that before the capture,
Pueblo was miles outside North Korean territorial waters, the Koreans on the other hand claim the vessel was well within the DPRK's territory. The crew affirms the assertion that the ship was operating from
international waters. The mission statement allowed her to approach within a
nautical mile (1.9 km) of that limit. The DPRK, however, claims a 50 nautical mile sea boundary even though international standards are 12 nautical miles.
On
January 5,
1968,
Pueblo left for
Sasebo,
Japan. She left Sasebo on
January 11 with specific orders to intercept and conduct surveillance of
Soviet naval activity in the
Tsushima Straits and to gather signal and electronic intelligence.
On
January 21 a modified
Soviet style sub chaser, SO-I class, passed within two miles (4 km) of the
Pueblo.
The next day, two DPRK fishing
trawlers (Lenta Class) passed within 25 yards of
Pueblo. That day, a North Korean unit made an assassination attempt against South Korean leadership targets, but the crew of
Pueblo was not informed.
According to the American account, the following day,
January 23,
Pueblo was approached by a sub chaser and her nationality was challenged,
Pueblo responded by raising the US flag. The DPRK vessel then ordered her to stand down or be fired upon.
Pueblo attempted to maneuver away, but was considerably slower than the sub chaser. Additionally, three torpedo boats appeared on the horizon and then joined in the chase and later attack. The attackers were soon joined by two
MiG-21 fighters. A fourth torpedo boat and a second sub chaser appeared on the horizon a short time later. The ammunition on
Pueblo was stored below decks, and her machine guns were wrapped in cold weather tarpaulins. The machine guns were unarmored, and no attempt was made to man them.
The North Korean vessels attempted to board
Pueblo but she maneuvered to prevent this and a sub chaser opened fire with a 55 mm cannon. The smaller vessels fired machine guns into
Pueblo, which then signaled compliance and began destroying sensitive material. The volume of material on board was so great it made it impossible to destroy all of it.
Radio contact with
Naval Security Group in
Kamiseya, Japan had been ongoing.
Seventh Fleet command was aware of
Pueblo's situation. Help was promised but never arrived. More than likely, no one wanted to take responsibility for an attack on North Korean vessels attacking
Pueblo. By the time
President Lyndon Johnson was awakened,
Pueblo had been captured and any rescue attempt would be futile.
Pueblo followed the North Korean vessels as ordered, but then stopped immediately outside North Korean waters. She was again fired upon, and a US sailor, Seaman Duane Hodges, was killed. She was boarded by men from a torpedo boat and a sub chaser. Crew members had their hands tied, were blindfolded, beaten, and prodded with bayonets.
Once
Pueblo was in North Korean territorial waters, she was boarded again, this time by high ranking North Korean officials.
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Crew of USS Pueblo
upon release December 23, 1968 |
Pueblo was taken into port at
Wonsan and the crew was moved twice to POW camps, with some of the crew reporting on release they were starved and regularly tortured while in North Korean custody. This treatment was allegedly worsened when the North Koreans realized that crewmen were secretly giving them "
the finger" in staged
propaganda photos.[
1] In fact, one of these photographs — which at a glance shows the crew relaxed and smiling — covertly used
sign language to convey the message "
SNOWJOB" (an American
colloquialism for a lie or
cover-up). The photograph was presented to the West as an example that the crew had supposedly decided to defect. The message was subsequently detected, however, and stands as an excellent, if unconventional, example of
steganography.
Following a written admission by the US that
Pueblo had been spying, an apology and an assurance that the US would not spy in the future, the North Korean government decided to release the 82 remaining crew members. On December 23, 1968, the crew was taken by busses to the DMZ border with South Korea and ordered to walk south across the
"Bridge of No Return". Exactly 11 months after being taken prisoner, the Captain led the long line of crewmembers, followed at the end by the Executive Officer, Lt Ed Murphy, the last man across the bridge. The US then verbally retracted the ransom admission, apology, and assurance. Meanwhile the North Koreans blanked out the paragraph above the signature which read: "and this hereby receipts for 82 crewmembers and one dead body".
Commander Lloyd M. Bucher, Commanding Officer of the "Pueblo" and all the officers and crew appeared before a Navy
Court of Inquiry. A
court martial was recommended for the CO and the Officer in Charge of the Research Department, Lt Steve Harris. But the
Secretary of the Navy,
John H. Chafee, rejected the recommendation, stating, "They have suffered enough." Commander Bucher was never found guilty of any indiscretions and continued his Navy career until retirement.
There is some debate as to whether Commander Bucher acted within his orders. It was clearly stated in his orders that Bucher was not to spark an international incident. The Americans allege that North Korea attacked and boarded
Pueblo in international waters - a clear act of war, whereas the DPRK has stated the
Pueblo was in violation of the territorial limit. The question is posed whether or not Bucher should have kept
Pueblo in the area after the first encounter of a gunboat. Those familiar with the operations of the ship point out that such encounters were routine while on station, and it was expected that Bucher would remain on station in spite of such events. Further, Bucher was not informed of escalating tensions between North Korea and South Korea / United States in the days leading up to the capture of
Pueblo. Bucher died in San Diego on
January 28,
2004, partly resultant from complications from the injuries he had suffered of his time as a
prisoner of war in North Korea.
Pueblo is still held by North Korea. In October 1999, she was towed from Wonson on the east coast, around the Korean Peninsula, to
Nampo on the west coast. This required moving the vessel through
international waters. No attempt to recapture the
Pueblo was made. This move was done just before the visit of US presidential envoy
James Kelly to the capital
Pyongyang. The present location of
Pueblo is in Pyongyang.
The
Pueblo (AGER-2) was the third ship named after
Pueblo, Colorado. She remains today a commissioned ship in the U.S. Navy. She is widely believed to be the first American ship to have been captured since the wars in
Tripoli, but that is incorrect. On
December 8,
1941, the river gunboat
USS Wake (PR-3) was captured by Japanese forces while moored in
Shanghai.
The USS
Pueblo is one of the primary tourist attractions in Pyongyang, North Korea. Often tourists are led through the ship by a guided tour. Participants will first enter the ship for a 15-minute video shown from a small TV set mounted in the ceiling, explaining how the North Koreans captured the ship, with some old film footage from that time. All areas of the ship are shown, including the secret communications room full of encryption machines and radio equipment, still in a partly dissassembled state after they were inspected by North Korean technicians. The highlight of the guided tour may be a photo opportunity where visitors have sometimes been able to have their pictures taken while holding the forward-mounted machine-gun.
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A tour guide speaking aboard the USS Pueblo, Pyongyang, 2004 |
During an August 2005 diplomatic session in North Korea, former US Ambassador to South Korea
Donald Gregg received verbal indications from high-ranking North Korean officials that the communist state would be willing to repatriate the USS
Pueblo to United States authorities, on the condition that a prominent US Government official, such as
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, come to Pyongyang for high-level talks. While the US Government has publicly stated on several occasions that the return of the still-commissioned Navy vessel is a priority, the current overall situation of US-North Korean relations makes such an official state visit very unlikely. The US Government has taken the position that North Korea's nuclear weapons ambitions, human rights record, and its reputation that it sponsors terrorism are its main concerns and that the USS
Pueblo is of a low priority at this time.
During an October 2000 visit to Pyongyang by then-Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright, North Korean negotiators reportedly presented an offer to repatriate the USS
Pueblo as part of a proposed process of normalizing diplomatic relations between the two nations. However, the Department of State is unable to confirm this claim. The offer dissipated with the US policy shift under
George W. Bush.
*
Gulf of Tonkin Incident*
USS Liberty incident*
Technical research ship*
List of hostage crises*
official US Navy registry*
site maintained by former Pueblo crew members*
a photograph on board*
CNN.com obituary for Commander Lloyd M. Bucher*
A recent photograph of USS Pueblo in Pyongyang
