U.S. Notifies North Korea of $400 Million Court Award to USS Pueblo Survivors
The United States told North Korea that a federal court ordered the regime to pay $400 million to former USS Pueblo crew members and their families.
In 1968 North Korea captured the USS Pueblo, an American intelligence vessel, and held its crew for eleven months, during which many suffered abuse. A U.S. federal court later ordered the regime to pay $400 million in damages to 15 crew members and their families. On October 14, the State Department confirmed that it had handed the ruling to North Korea’s permanent mission at the United Nations in New York on August 8.
The ship remains on display in Pyongyang along the Pothong River. Although the North Korean government is not expected to fulfill the payment, the victims may file claims with the Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund and attempt to claim the regime’s frozen overseas assets.
Why it matters
It shows how the U.S. uses legal avenues to hold hostile states financially accountable for past abuses.
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