North Korea: Ship seizure is just desserts

Re: “North Korea tells US to release seized cargo ship,” (TNT, 5/15).

North Korea seems rather wroth about the U.S. seizing its cargo ship Wise Honest. (Which I consider richly named for a rogue nuclear-armed country with a long history of shooting itself in the foot, then lying about it afterward, a la the Otto Warmbier affair).

Good. A little karmic payback for North Korea is long overdue for what it did to our USS Pueblo and her crew in 1968.

In short: On Jan. 23 of that year, in international waters off North Korea’s eastern shore, DPRK military forces attacked and hijacked the Pueblo, killing a 21-year-old sailor named Duane Hodges, and holding 82 crewmen hostage in brutal captivity for 11 months.

What happened to the Pueblo and her crew more than half a century ago and counting - as the North Koreans are still holding this commissioned U.S. Navy vessel hostage to this very day - significantly trumps what North Korea is now calling a “flagrant act of robbery.”

Seems like a good time for President Trump to bring up the Pueblo matter with Kim Jung Un, don’t you think?

This story was originally published May 28, 2019 at 3:38 PM.