On January 23 1968, the sailors of the Korean People’s Army located an unidentified ship in the waters off Wonsan in the East Sea of Korea. The ship had no sign of nationality, but was only dotted with antennas.
The KPA naval vessels repeatedly sent a signal to it to show its nationality. The ship did not answer it, but fired a machine gun at them.
The brave KPA sailors captured the ship in only 14 minutes.
A remodelled transport ship, it was outwardly disguised as a marine research ship. But actually it was the armed spy ship Pueblo belonging to the US Pacific Fleet, which specialized in espionage activities. Most of its crew members (83) were spies with extensive professional experience and skills of espionage.
When the Pueblo was captured, the US decided to take a military “retaliatory measure” against the DPRK at the National Security Council. It concentrated many warships and warplanes in the East Sea of Korea and threatened and blackmailed the latter.
The US, however, could not but yield to the resolute position of the DPRK to return retaliation for “retaliation” and all-out war for all-out war.
On December 23, the US government signed a letter of apology, which said that it takes full responsibility for the grave espionage activity it conducted against the DPRK and makes a solemn apology for it and that it offers a firm guarantee that any US warships would not intrude into the territorial waters of the DPRK again in the future.
The captured crew members were expelled from the DPRK but the Pueblo remained in it as a piece of evidence which informs the world of the US act of aggression and as a war trophy of the KPA.
US newspaper The Los Angeles Times reported that the Pueblo incident was one of the greatest failures in the field of intelligence service in the US history and the worst nightmare for all and that no one in the US Defense Department or the White House had ever imagined the Pueblo would be captured in the DPRK.
Referring to the incident, a retired rear admiral of the US Navy also deplored that the US Navy had three most shameful days in its history and one of them was the Pueblo incident that occurred on January 23 1968.
The ship is still tied to the land in the section of the captured weapons exhibition of the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum on the banks of the Pothong River, clearly showing the tragic end of the aggressors and the doom of provokers.
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