Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Lesson from Disgrace of the Pueblo Incident Must Be Remembered
Half a century has elapsed since the Pueblo Incident occurred terrifying the United States of America.

On January 23 Juche 57 (1968) a US armed spy ship, Pueblo, flying no flag, had trespassed on Korean waters 7.6 miles from Ryo Island off Wonsan (39°17.4′N, 127°46.9′E) and been conducting acts of espionage. Naval vessels of the Korean People’s Army, during a routine patrol, captured the US armed spy ship and over 80 of its crew that attempted to escape amid reckless firing.

The Pueblo, a 1 000-ton ship, was equipped with modern facilities for the purpose of espionage and dispatched by the Central Intelligence Agency. Its crew had maps that marked the locations of military bases of the DPRK, and the ship’s locations records showed that it was ordered in December Juche 56 (1967) to leave Sasebo Port in Japan for the Korean seas to intrude into Korean waters and conduct acts of espionage on several occasions.

Its capture was the outcome of the DPRK exercising its sovereignty and due punishment for the US menacing peace in Asia and the rest of the world.

Despite the fact, the US spread a preposterous lie that the Pueblo was an oceanic electron research ship and it was apprehended in the international waters. On the other hand, they convened a National Security Council meeting that adopted resolutions for military retaliation, and deployed their massive aggressive forces in the Korean waters, posing a grave military threat. It had the impudence to bring the incident to the United Nations.

The whole world was very apprehensive of the developments on the Korean peninsula.

At that juncture the DPRK declared its resolute and principled stand that it did not want war but it was not afraid of it, and it would retaliate against the “retaliation” of the US and return all-out war for the “all-out war.” It published material evidence that disclosed the acts of espionage the Pueblo had conducted against the DPRK and other countries.

Lloyd Mark Butcher, captain of the Pueblo, and its crew confessed that their assignment was to ascertain the movements of the naval force and all electronic signals transmitted by the KPA, assess the reaction of the DPRK to such armed spy ships as the Pueblo, and collect latest data of military concern.

With the resolute principle of the DPRK, confessions of the crew, and concrete evidence of their criminal acts, the US was driven into a tight corner and could not but acknowledge their crime and offer a letter of apology, which read: “The Government of the United States of America… shoulders full responsibility and solemnly apologizes for the grave acts of espionage committed against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and gives firm assurance that no US ship will intrude again in future into the territorial waters of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.”

The US must reread the letter of apology written in the 60s of the last century and draw a bitter lesson from it.

If they neglect the past lesson and continuously resort to reckless moves for provoking a new, nuclear war, they are doomed to a fate more miserable than that of the Pueblo Incident.

Only defeat and disgrace will follow the aggressive moves against the DPRK committed by the US.

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