Pueblo Incident

Pueblo Incident (1968).On 23 January 1968, the USS Pueblo—gathering intelligence on the military strength of North Korea—steamed into the Sea of Japan outside the twelve‐mile territorial limit of the Communist nation. Without warning, North Korean warships converged on the Pueblo and ordered her crew to heave to or be fired upon. As crewmen began to burn classified documents, the North Koreans opened fire, wounding several American sailors, one mortally. Commander Lloyd M. Bucher ordered an end to resistance.

The U.S. Pacific Command dispatched air and naval forces into the Sea of Japan, but they arrived too late to help the Pueblo and her eighty‐two‐man crew. Meanwhile, the Communists had boarded the Pueblo, confiscated intelligence equipment and documents, and brought the ship into Wonsan port. Washington protested North Korea's brazen attack in international waters, but the North Koreans refused to release ship or crew.

Over the next few months, the Communists tortured Bucher and his men to make them admit “guilt” for spying and violating North Korea's territorial waters. Pyongyang made it clear the Americans would not be released until Washington apologized for infringing on North Korean sovereignty and promised not to do so again.

American diplomats met with Communist officials ashore at Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Finally, President Lyndon B. Johnson directed his representatives to sign the necessary statement. At the same time, his officials publicly disavowed the document's validity. On 22 December, the North Koreans released the American prisoners and the body of their slain shipmate. They did not return the Pueblo. In 1969, a U.S. Navy court of inquiry recommended that Bucher be court‐martialed, but the Johnson administration declined.
[See also Korea, U.S. Military Involvement in.]

Bibliography

Lloyd Bucher , My Story, 1970.
Daniel V. Gallery , The Pueblo Incident, 1970.
Robert W. Love, Jr. , History of the U.S. Navy, Vol. II, 1992.

Edward J. Marolda