A little help

by Andy Jackson on March 30, 2007

Former prime minister, Lee Hae-chan recently asked the North Koreans to return the USS Pueblo to the United States. One would hope that return of the ship is on the list of preconditions for normalizing US-NK relations.

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

1 SomeguyinKorea March 30, 2007 at 12:01 pm: It’s actually not a bad idea. It would be a symbolic gesture on their part…then again, symbolic gestures can be quickly made to be meaningless.
2 Sperwer March 30, 2007 at 1:08 pm: It’s actually not a bad idea. It would be a symbolic gesture on their part…then again, symbolic gestures can be quickly made to be meaningless.

In other words, it’s crap. An insubstantial gesture that would become the basis for demands for real, substantial benefits – by both North and South – in return. So typical of the Korean mentalite. The bad faith of Korea’s commitment of Zaytun toilet plumbers raised to the level of utter farce.
3 SomeguyinKorea March 30, 2007 at 1:44 pm: I was just saying that receiving a gift from North Korea is not unlike accepting favor from a gangster, they both come with very heavy strings attached and you never know when they will be pulled.
4 mateomiguel March 30, 2007 at 2:40 pm: You can extend that gangster metaphor to every single one of the North Korean regime’s actions without barely stretching it at all.
5 mateomiguel March 30, 2007 at 2:41 pm: And in some cases such as their history of money laundering, kidnapping, assassination and extortion you don’t need to extend any sort of metaphor at all. Its reality baby!
6 Paul H. March 30, 2007 at 6:07 pm: I’ve never had my curiosity satisfied as to how and when the Pueblo got moved from Wonsan to its present location.

Anybody know? Did the North take it apart, move it overland, and then reassemble it where it is now, or is there some internal waterway across North Korea that enabled it to be sailed there more or less intact? This last sounds contrary to what I think I know of peninsular geography, but without a good topo map in front of me I suppose I can’t be sure.

If they sailed it all the way around the ROK, and we failed to mount an attempt to retake it, or even better, torpedo it — well, that was a real lick on “US”, almost as bad as the original incident.
7 Uri Onara March 30, 2007 at 7:50 pm: While I cannot presume to speak for all Americans, I feel confident in saying that the US does not really want or need the Pueblo back. Thanks anyway, Mr. Lee. (Geez…)
8 railwaycharm March 30, 2007 at 8:53 pm: Rust bucket, let them keep it.
9 dlatn March 30, 2007 at 9:41 pm: Sounds like a good deal, Maybe South Korea can return Lee Hae-chan to Japan at the same time.
10 Dave in Songtan March 31, 2007 at 3:47 pm: Paul, it was indeed towed around the Korean Peninsula,

Pueblo is still held by North Korea. In October 1999, it 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.

I recall wondering why the US, and the US Navy in particular, allowed that to happen.
11 Dave in Songtan March 31, 2007 at 3:51 pm: Screwed up the link on #10

Wiki entry on USS Pueblo
12 MrChips April 1, 2007 at 11:03 pm: Actually the wiki entry that the Pueblo was towed around the peninsula through international waters is pure speculation. Other theories on this are that it was sent piecemeal across land by rail or towed through the rather extensive canal system that North Korea operates. Only one thing is certain: one day the Pueblo was in Wonsan and the next day it was missing only to appear a few weeks later in Nampo. No information was ever available to indicate that the operation was ever pending so that the vessel could be intercepted.