thedrifter
05-07-07, 08:28 AM
Ship-flag swap edges forward
South Korean group’s visit advances plan to trade banner, Pueblo
By Chris Amos - camos@militarytimes.com
Posted : May 14, 2007
Swapping a ship for a flag might not be the fairest of trades, but that’s just what a group of history buffs is suggesting, and the idea seems to be gaining traction.
A South Korean government delegation traveled to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the week of April 23 to view a Korean battle flag captured by American Marines more than a century ago, amid calls for returning the flag to the Korean peninsula as a goodwill gesture.
Proponents hope that, in exchange for the flag, the Navy will get back its only commissioned ship held by a foreign government.
“The return of the USS Pueblo is long overdue,” Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said in a statement. “North Korea has hinted at the possible return of the captured U.S. Navy ship, and it is my hope that they can take action at this opportune time. In speaking with some of my constituents, I believe there may be merit to the exchange of Gen. Uh Je-yeon’s flag for the USS Pueblo.”
The Pueblo, a surveillance ship, was captured in 1968 by North Korean naval forces, who said it strayed within their territorial waters while conducting intelligence operations — an assertion Navy officials vehemently denied.
One U.S. sailor was killed when North Korean forces fired on the Pueblo before boarding, binding its crew and towing the ship into port.
In response, President Johnson ordered the carriers Enterprise and Kitty Hawk and their strike groups to waters off the North Korean coast and mobilized thousands of reservists but ultimately did not intervene militarily.
Several months later, North Korean officials released the Pueblo’s crew, including the body of the dead sailor, but refused to return the ship. It now serves as a museum against “imperialist aggression” on a river in Pyongyang, North Korea, above the wreckage of another Navy ship, the General Sherman, which was sacked, burned and sunk by a Korean mob during an American military intervention in Korea in 1871.
During that same intervention, a group of Marines and sailors captured Korean Gen. Uh Je-yeon’s flag after a group of Korean soldiers fought to the death to prevent the Marines from advancing on Seoul from a nearby island.
On April 18, Allard sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that asked her to encourage the Bush administration to consider returning the flag. One week later, a four-person delegation from the South Korean government’s Cultural Heritage Administration traveled to Washington and met with Allard’s staff. Next, the delegation was scheduled to travel to the academy to view the flag.
Steve Wymer, a spokesman for Allard, said Rice has responded to the senator’s letter, promising to look into the issue. Wymer said he thinks Allard can expect a reply within two weeks, but two people familiar with the case say the Bush administration will be powerless to act without congressional intervention.
That’s because an 1814 law requires the Navy to hold onto captured battle flags and an executive order, issued in 1849 by President Polk, requires that flags captured by naval forces be stored at the Naval Academy.
The flag, which military historian Doug Sterner said is the Korean equivalent of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry, Md., while the British bombarded the fort during the War of 1812, is one of more than 300 battle flags held at the Naval Academy’s museum.
Returning it to the Korean peninsula is the right thing to do, Sterner said, whether or not the North Koreans return the Pueblo.
And for their part, State Department officials have called for North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, to return the Pueblo — with or without the flag.
But because the flag was captured from Korea before the countries’ division, it is unclear what effect returning it to South Korea would have on the North Korean government.
Ellie
South Korean group’s visit advances plan to trade banner, Pueblo
By Chris Amos - camos@militarytimes.com
Posted : May 14, 2007
Swapping a ship for a flag might not be the fairest of trades, but that’s just what a group of history buffs is suggesting, and the idea seems to be gaining traction.
A South Korean government delegation traveled to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., the week of April 23 to view a Korean battle flag captured by American Marines more than a century ago, amid calls for returning the flag to the Korean peninsula as a goodwill gesture.
Proponents hope that, in exchange for the flag, the Navy will get back its only commissioned ship held by a foreign government.
“The return of the USS Pueblo is long overdue,” Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said in a statement. “North Korea has hinted at the possible return of the captured U.S. Navy ship, and it is my hope that they can take action at this opportune time. In speaking with some of my constituents, I believe there may be merit to the exchange of Gen. Uh Je-yeon’s flag for the USS Pueblo.”
The Pueblo, a surveillance ship, was captured in 1968 by North Korean naval forces, who said it strayed within their territorial waters while conducting intelligence operations — an assertion Navy officials vehemently denied.
One U.S. sailor was killed when North Korean forces fired on the Pueblo before boarding, binding its crew and towing the ship into port.
In response, President Johnson ordered the carriers Enterprise and Kitty Hawk and their strike groups to waters off the North Korean coast and mobilized thousands of reservists but ultimately did not intervene militarily.
Several months later, North Korean officials released the Pueblo’s crew, including the body of the dead sailor, but refused to return the ship. It now serves as a museum against “imperialist aggression” on a river in Pyongyang, North Korea, above the wreckage of another Navy ship, the General Sherman, which was sacked, burned and sunk by a Korean mob during an American military intervention in Korea in 1871.
During that same intervention, a group of Marines and sailors captured Korean Gen. Uh Je-yeon’s flag after a group of Korean soldiers fought to the death to prevent the Marines from advancing on Seoul from a nearby island.
On April 18, Allard sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that asked her to encourage the Bush administration to consider returning the flag. One week later, a four-person delegation from the South Korean government’s Cultural Heritage Administration traveled to Washington and met with Allard’s staff. Next, the delegation was scheduled to travel to the academy to view the flag.
Steve Wymer, a spokesman for Allard, said Rice has responded to the senator’s letter, promising to look into the issue. Wymer said he thinks Allard can expect a reply within two weeks, but two people familiar with the case say the Bush administration will be powerless to act without congressional intervention.
That’s because an 1814 law requires the Navy to hold onto captured battle flags and an executive order, issued in 1849 by President Polk, requires that flags captured by naval forces be stored at the Naval Academy.
The flag, which military historian Doug Sterner said is the Korean equivalent of the flag that flew over Fort McHenry, Md., while the British bombarded the fort during the War of 1812, is one of more than 300 battle flags held at the Naval Academy’s museum.
Returning it to the Korean peninsula is the right thing to do, Sterner said, whether or not the North Koreans return the Pueblo.
And for their part, State Department officials have called for North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, to return the Pueblo — with or without the flag.
But because the flag was captured from Korea before the countries’ division, it is unclear what effect returning it to South Korea would have on the North Korean government.
Ellie