Posted on 08/07/2006 4:43:12 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
N.Korea claims capture of U.S. submersible
By KWANG-TAE KIM, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 36 minutes ago
North Korea claimed it has captured an unmanned U.S. submersible and put it on display in Pyongyang, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The U.S. dismissed the report.
The small vessel was captured during a reconnaissance mission in waters off North Korea's eastern city of Hamhung, said the Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is published by a pro-North Korean association linked to the Pyongyang government.
The newspaper report on its Web site, which is monitored in Seoul, was accompanied by a picture purported to be of the black torpedo-shaped U.S. vessel. There were no further details as to when or how North Korea obtained it.
A spokesman for the U.S. military in South Korea, David Oten, dismissed the report.
"We have nothing unaccounted for and there is no way for us to verify that this is a U.S. vessel," Oten said.
Last September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il instructed officials to put the captured vessel on public display next to the spy ship USS Pueblo, which the communist regime seized along with its crew of 82 in 1968, the newspaper said. The crew was released after 11 months.
The Pueblo, moored to the bank of the Taedong River in Pyongyang, is now the site of tours to inspire anti-U.S. sentiment among the country's 23 million people. Some 1,500 North Koreans made daily visits to the Pueblo during a recent month-long, anti-U.S. rally period, said the newspaper.
Despite repeated U.S. assurances that it has no intention of attacking the North, the communist country frequently claims that Washington seeks to invade it and that the U.S. is driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.
The North recently raised regional tensions by test-launching seven missiles, including a new long-range model believed capable of reaching the U.S. that failed shortly after takeoff.
It looks like a torpedo.
Any Navy types out there who can identify this object?
Ping!
"We have nothing unaccounted for and there is no way for us to verify that this is a U.S. vessel," Oten said.
But he apparently doesn't deny that we have them operating in the area. Hmmmm...
Now that I think of it, it makes no sense. If we had unmanned submerisibles operating in the area, they would be designed to self destruct rather than be captured.
Wouldn't it literally be the "bomb" if it was actually a cleverly disguised nuke torpedo. One with a delayed timer on it.
It looks like a recon torp, but I am no expert.
There. Fixed.
"It looks like a recon torp, but I am no expert."
Perhaps you could enlighten us with just a little experience on what a 'recon torp' might be.
I think you're chatting, advisedly speaking, through your hat.
There. Fixed.
===================
Almost, but not quite:
"Some 1,500 North Koreans -- lured by the promise of a steamed dumpling each -- made daily visits to the Pueblo during a recent month-long, anti-U.S. rally period, and the government had its hands full preventing visitors from trying to eat everything in sight, said the newspaper.
There we go! Now its fixed.
Reporter: What kind of torpedo is it?
Johnny: Oh, it's a big pretty black torpedo with curly fins, a flat nose, propellers, and it just looks like a big ....
Oh, that's what happened to our 'DOOMSDAY' torpedo. Hope they don't try and open it!
If it were a recon torpedo I would think the first thing the N. Koreans would have done was try to get into the thing to see how it works. If they did that they would be displaying the scientific instruments they took from it as proof of what the thing was.
Just an opinion ---not a fact.
bttt
It would be "interesting" to see how long that "concrete" and cut stone and grout around the display case have been in place.
Lining up for dumplings at the Pueblo!!
"Hey! Where's the kochujan you promised??"
I will never understand how we let North Korea get away with this.
Kim Jong-Il: "We captured it. The big rong missre. But it's ticking and we don't know why."
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