A Half-Century Later, Pueblo’s Crew Gets Their Day in Court

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walks in front of the USS Pueblo, a U.S. navy technical research ship captured by North Korean forces in 1968, in Pyongyang on July 27, 2013. GILES HEWITT/AFP via Getty Images

Most Americans have long since forgotten the USS Pueblo incident, even if North Korea has not. The rusting hulk of the U.S. intelligence vessel seized by North Korea in 1968 is still moored near the Victorious Fatherland Liberation War Museum in Pyongyang, marking what the regime regards as a historic moment for its great revolution. 

Now, like the contents of a shattered time capsule, the Pueblo has spilled back into the news, demonstrating how little has changed in the half-century of tensions that have defined relations between the United States and North Korea. On Wednesday, a federal district court in Washington awarded $2.3 billion in damages to Pueblo crew members and their families, among the most money ever awarded in a state-sponsored terrorism case.