Posted on 04/15/2007 12:19:44 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Richardson, in North Korea, tours USS Pueblo
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
By FOSTER KLUG
ASSOCIATED PRESS
PYONGYANG, North Korea -- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Monday toured a U.S. warship captured by North Korea in the 1960s that is now used to inspire anti-American sentiment in the reclusive communist regime.
The North Korean colonel who served as Richardson's guide smiled as he told the governor the ship was an example of continued U.S. aggression toward his country. Richardson and his traveling companion, former Veteran Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi, were then shown bullet holes circled in red paint and a video describing the maneuvering of "brazen-faced U.S. imperialists."
The USS Pueblo was captured by North Korea on Jan. 23, 1968, after being sent defenseless on an intelligence-gathering mission off the country's coast. It was the first U.S. warship captured since 1807, and remains the only active-duty warship in foreign hands.
Navy records show the ship was in international waters at the time of its capture; the North insists it was inside the Korean coastal zone. North Korea held the ship's crew of 82 for 11 months before releasing them. The ship was then moored in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.
Richardson, a Democratic presidential candidate who is in North Korea this week to collect the remains of U.S. servicemen killed in the Korean War, said the tour of the ship was "unpleasant."
"Despite the success with the remains, this is a relationship with a lot of tension, and this shows that," Richardson told reporters after the tour.
He called the Pueblo visit "a lot of propaganda, but we're guests here."
Principi, who was a Navy officer at the time of the Pueblo's capture, said it was disconcerting to have something from that era still on display.
"It's very unpleasant to hear the assertion of continued aggression against the Democratic People's Republic of North Korea," Principi said.
Ping!
Why did he even go then?
Richardson can kiss any presidential aspirations goodbye.
Actually they are starving in a dark hell hole.
Because to establish these threads, and to keep them going, quite necessarily requires a CRITICISM of the current Bush Administration about face, appeasement and capitulation on the North Korean front.
Previously...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1814669/posts
I know. Pro-China business can exert quite an influence on both parties. Don't rock the boat, just make money, safeguard stock market at all costs.
This is one of the end result.
Very well said
Well, I'll play:
President Bush must be pretty foolish for sending this traitorous left-wing opportunist as an official representative of his Administration.
I’m only sorry I wasted my time putting in asterisks since the post was removed anyway.
Geez. A contribution like that. Go figure
At one time, I stood a 1/3 chance of being stationed on one of the “spook-ships” USS Pueblo, the USS Banner, and the USS Palm Beach, but opted for additional “spook” training instead. (And got assigned to Rota, Spain!)
I really, really dislike the N. Koreans. Really. Even more than hippies. And that’s saying something.
Democrat resume enhancement...ping.
Suffice it to say, you’re absolutely right.
IMHO, we ought to either take it back or sink it...
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