A US Federal Judge has awarded more than $65 million to several men captured and tortured by North Korea when the USS Pueblo was seized in 1968.
The Pueblo Incident, at the height of the cold war created fears of a new Korean War. The United States claimed that the USS Pueblo was in International waters, where as North Korea claimed the naval intelligence ship was in their waters spying. The crew was interned in POW camps and tourtured, although we defiant until their release, including showing their middle fingers in images taken by the North Koreans sent around the world.
The lawsuit filed by William Thomas Massie, Donald Raymond McClarren, Dunnie Richard Tuck and the estate of Lloyd Bucher was successful with North Korea not responding to the suit.
Massie, McClarren and Tuck each received $16.7 million. Bucher’s estate received $14.3 million and his wife, Rose, $1.25 million.
The ship is still in North Korean hands, and is the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power.
North Korea is not expected to pay the damages however.
