Judge awards $65 million to Pueblo victims

[unhappycamper]

Judge awards $65 million to Pueblo victims
By Jesse J. Holland - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Dec 30, 2008 22:36:24 EST

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday awarded more than $65 million to several men who were captured and tortured by North Korea after the communist country seized the U.S. spy ship USS Pueblo during the Cold War.

North Korea never responded to the lawsuit filed by William Thomas Massie, Donald Raymond McClarren, Dunnie Richard Tuck and the estate of Lloyd Bucher. U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. entered the judgment against the country.

The USS Pueblo was seized off North Korea while it was on an intelligence-gathering mission on Jan. 23, 1968. The North claimed the ship was inside its coastal zone while the U.S. Navy contended it was in international waters.

One of the U.S. ship’s 83 crew members was killed and 10 others were wounded. The crew members, led by Cmdr. Lloyd Bucher, were released after 11 months of captivity and sometimes torture.

The ship is still in North Korean hands, the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/12/ap_pueblo_korea_123008/%2e

[Divine Discontent]

1. wow... took 'em a while to make a decision on this, I wonder if the N. Koreans will pay

glad to see they got this rendered, I would guess most are still alive, I just don't understand if N.K. will pay, I would guess not. I remember reading how that warship was still there - man, they musta sent technicians in the ship to study the equipment for decades! I'm surprised we didn't pay to have it returned, maybe we didn't offer enough.