North Korea’s state-run media have played up the anniversary of the ship’s seizure as a milestone in the country’s continuing struggle against the United States.
Fifty years after it was seized by North Korea, the U. S. spy ship Pueblo is the only U. S. Navy ship held captive by a foreign government. And though mostly forgotten in the United States, the « Pueblo incident » for North Korea remains a potent symbol of military success.
The spy ship, attacked and captured 50 years ago this week, sits in the frozen Potong River on the edge of the sprawling « Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum » complex in central Pyongyang, where thousands of North Koreans are brought each day to hear the North’s version of how their country, against all odds, defeated the Americans in the 1950-53 Korean War and has been fighting off the hostile Goliath ever since.
Amid an escalating flow of rhetorical attacks on Washington for allegedly trying to sour North-South relations ahead of next month’s Winter Olympics in South Korea, North Korea’s state-run media have played up the anniversary as a milestone in the country’s continuing struggle against the United States, now over leader Kim Jong Un’s development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In a story commemorating the anniversary, North Korea’s official news agency quoted a naval officer as saying the ship is a symbol of how the United States will suffer a « crushing defeat » if it infringes on the country’s sovereignty.
