Specter of Pueblo

Over and over, North Korea's propaganda organs trumpeted the news. A "heavily armed" American espionage ship, escorted by jet fighters and warships, had been sunk in the Yellow Sea. "Officers and men of the Korean Peoples' Army," said one report,"instantly sent to the bottom of the sea the enemy's armed spy ship, which intruded deep into the coastal waters." Scare headlines sprouted around the world, stirring memories of the North Korean capture of the U.S. electronic intelligence ship Pueblo in January 1968. Had a similar incident taken place?

Evidently not. In Seoul, South Korea's Defense Ministry reported that one of its patrol vessels had been captured, not sunk, at roughly the point cited by North Korea. The Seoul vessel had been on picket duty, assigned to warn South Korean fishermen when they strayed too close to Communist waters. A slow, unwieldy tub, armed only with a single .50-cal. machine gun, it would have been no match for its speedy, heavily armed North Korean captors. In Washington, the U.S. Navy flatly denied that any U.S. ships had been operating in the area.

The incident seemed to be simply another chapter in the continuing struggle between the two Koreas. So far this year, South Korea has sunk two North Korean patrol boats, and it is possible that the latest episode was simply retaliation by North Korea's Premier Kim II Sung. Although there was some initial suspicion that Washington and Seoul might be collaborating on a cover story to obscure an espionage exploit, high-ranking sources insistently denied it.

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