--- title: "I went to North Korea and saw the US Navy ship still being held captive after 50 years" description: "In North Korea, an American ship was taken captive. It's crew went home, but the ship has been stuck there for more than five decades." date: "2021-01-28" modified: "2021-01-28" authors: - name: "Blake Stilwell" job_title: "Editor-In-Chief, Air Force Veteran" link: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/authors/blake/" url: "https://www.wearethemighty.com/popular/north-korea-uss-pueblo/" categories: - "Entertainment" - "History" - "Korean War" - "Navy" - "Travel" - "War History" tags: - "North Korea" --- # I went to North Korea and saw the US Navy ship still being held captive after 50 years ![]() I didn't even get a t-shirt. In North Korea, it was too expensive. --- Everything in North Korea takes you in through the gift shop and out through the same gift shop in an attempt to milk cash from visitors so they can buy Hennessy en masse from the duty free shop at Beijing Airport. That's not a joke: 20 people boarding our flight from Beijing to Pyongyang were carrying boxes of cigarettes, cognac, and chocolate. The plane's aisles and free spaces overflowed with what looked like supplies for a party at DMX's house. In late 2012, I visited the country that honestly believes it won the Korean War by virtue of not being annihilated completely. So it makes sense (in a weird way) they would believe capturing an American ship outside its territorial waters 15 years after the fighting stopped is a giant feather in their cap. The *Pueblo* was a Navy Signals Intelligence ship which was attacked and boarded by North Koreans in international waters. The crew didn't go down easily. As the ship attempted to evade capture, the North Koreans opened up on her. One U.S. sailor was killed by the 57mm guns aboard a North Korean subchaser. After that volley, the crew signaled compliance and began to destroy the immense amount of classified material aboard. It took two subchasers, four torpedo boats, and two MiG fighters to subdue the *Pueblo* and its crew, who weren't even able to man the ship's guns due to restrictive Navy regulations. The ship's crew were simply outgunned and outnumbered. The capture was also unfortunate in timing, since the year it was captured, 1968, was probably the most eventful year in modern American history. The week after the *Pueblo's* capture, North Vietnam launched the Tet Offensive, drawing attention away from their plight and putting the media spotlight on [America's first "Television War."]() The *Pueblo* was sent to Wonsan while its crew was taken to North Korean POW camps. They were starved and tortured but the crew resisted even as the North Koreans attempted to use them as propaganda pieces in photos. The crew was a bit smarter than that. ![]() They literally gave the finger to the Kim regime. At every opportunity they flashed the "[Hawaiian good luck sign]()." When the captives realized the communists didn't know what the gesture meant, they flashed it for every camera, ruining all the potential propaganda value. When the North Koreans read what it actually meant in Time magazine, they were beaten for a week. ![]() *Thanks, Time Magazine.* Fifty years later, her crew repatriated, the *Pueblo* is still held by North Korea. In 1999 it was moved from Wonsan to Pyongyang, moored on the Taedong River. This is where I saw the ship. ![]() *(photo by Blake Stilwell)* The woman in the bottom right of the above photo was one of our two guides/minders/spies who were present with us for every waking moment of our time in North Korea — except at our hotel — which was on an island in the middle of the same river where the Pueblo was moored. ![]() (photo by Blake Stilwell) The tour of the *Pueblo* was just one event in a day packed with them telling their American visitors how awful our government is, how they *definitely* won that war we had (their holiday marking the end of the war is called "Victory Day") despite overwhelming material and personnel losses, and how without Marshal Kim Jong-Un's nuclear weapons, the Yankees and the corrupt regime in the South would immediately try to take over North again. Obviously. The *Pueblo* is only the seventh ship to be captured since the American War with the Barbary Pirates and is the second oldest ship still commissioned by the U.S. Navy. The crew of the *Pueblo* (like Don McClarren, below) sure havn't forgotten about it. ![]() *(Photo Credit: BJ Small, Mechanicsburg, PA)* As of August 2012, the ship seemed in good condition, or as good as North Korea would allow it. Like everything else there, it could have used a coat of paint – which rumor has it – the ship has since received from the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum (Yes, that's the real name of the museum and that's really what the North Koreans call the Korean War, which is almost as ridiculous as the *Monument* to the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War*.* Because nobody does statues like Communists). ![]() *(photo by Blake Stilwell)* Before exiting through another gift shop, the tour of the Pueblo includes a trip below decks, where photography was strictly prohibited. They monitor Americans pretty closely so I wasn't able to take a direct video of the presentation of the North Korean version of the *Pueblo* Incident. Luckily, finding a copy of it wasn't too difficult. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di2eZIX-ZQM The film is a priceless taste of the kind of propaganda the people in Pyongyang experience all the time. Don't let this accent fool you. North Koreans study for decades just to master foreign languages. One of our guides spoke four fluent languages and one North Korean randomly approached us on the street to say welcome — in perfect English, with a midwestern American accent. ## Author Blake Stilwell is We Are The Mighty's Editor-in-Chief, covering military news, entertainment, and history, along with veteran education, employment and entrepreneurship. He is a former U.S. Air Force combat cameraman with degrees in Graphic Design, Television and Film, International Relations, Public Relations, Business Management and Middle Eastern Affairs. After leaving the military, he began working in film and television production in New York and Los Angeles, work that included ABC News, NBC Olympics, and HBO Sports. He then spent two years in Washington with White House Communications, before joining the Near East Foundation. At NEF he served as an International Development Fellow, then Communications Officer, and finally, Media Officer for the Middle East and Africa. Based in the Palestinian Territory, he coordinated strategic communications between eight country offices, international media, and government and NGO partners. He began a career focused on writing and editing in 2015 with We Are The Mighty. He left in 2019 for Military.com, but returned as Editor-in-Chief in 2025. Blake’s work has been seen on CBS News, Fox News, CBC, The Chicago Tribune, Task & Purpose, Military Times, Recoil, Skillset, American History, and was shockingly even used in a Supreme Court argument. He is an avid traveler and small business owner in Ohio, where he spends most of his energy fixing up a very old house. ### Author social links [Facebook]() [Twitter]() [Instagram]() [LinkedIn]()