"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and ...

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"Mostly Propaganda in Nature:" Kim Il Sung, the Juche Ideology, and the Second Korean War NKIDP Working Paper #3 left all but one of the intruders dead. An infuriated ROK population demanded retaliation. The Korean Peoples Anti-Communist League sponsored a rally in Seoul; despite twenty-degree weather, 100,000 people showed up to march three miles and burn a ten-foot straw effigy of the North Korean leader. Similar feelings were echoed throughout the nation. Anti-DPRK sentiment, wrote the Czech embassy to Pyongyang, was so strong that "South Korean authorities did not even have to apply direct pressure to ensure participation in these demonstrations." 54 When President Park ordered the creation of a local defense force, the Homeland Reserve Defense Force, to supplement the regular army, 2 million South Koreans volunteered within six months. Under fierce American pressure, Park managed to restrain his military from taking major retaliatory actions against the North, but it was not easy. "Few people" recalled one American general, "realize how close we came to war on January 21." 55 Within a week, war seemed even more likely. On January 23, North Korean air and naval forces surrounded the USS Pueblo, an American spy ship operating off the DPRK coast in the Sea of Japan. "Heave to," one of the ships ordered, "or I will open fire." Pueblo had been warned to expect some routine harassment, and Captain Pete Bucher confidently raised his ship's signal flags: "I am in international waters. Intend to remain in the area until tomorrow." Suddenly, a North Korean P-4 torpedo boat backed down on the American ship, with an armed landing party set to board Pueblo. The spy ship's engines slipped into gear at the last moment, but escape proved impossible. The faster DPRK ships again closed on Pueblo and opened fire, scattering destruction across the deck. With his ship virtually unarmed, and with no support on the horizon, Bucher surrendered. Pueblo, now with one man dead and numerous others injured, was boarded and sailed into Wonsan Harbor. The crewmen were violently dragged onto land and bused to a 54 "Pueblo and American-South Korean relations," February 9, 1968, Political Report #11, Czech Embassy in the DPRK, Report # 031/68, SM-021712/68. 55 Anonymous general quoted in New York Times, August 16, 1968. www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 20
Mitchell Lerner NKIDP Working Paper #3 December 2010 North Korean prison camp, where they were held for eleven months of torture, abuse, and public humiliation. For much of 1968, a second Korean War thus seemed imminent. An outraged American public demanded retaliation, especially as the DPRK regularly used the Pueblo men as propaganda pawns by bringing them into public for press conferences and other appearances throughout the year. Senator Russell Long (D-LA) suggested the United States begin sinking North Korean gunboats and holding their merchant ships hostage; "If the Soviets want to deal itself in on it," Long trumpeted, "they can get in on it, too." 56 Senator Mendell Rivers (D-SC) agreed. "I'd select a target," he told the media. "I'd do like Truman did--let one of them disappear." 57 The American public was also outraged. Telegrams flooded the White House. One from Los Angeles asked Johnson to "drop a juicy bomb on their capital" and another from Philadelphia demanded, "drop the hydrogen bomb and let's end it." 58 South Korea was equally aflame. In February, over 1,000 ROK high school students protested in front of US Information Service Centers at Daegu and Kwangju, demanding action against the North and an end to "boot- licking conferences." 59 One ROK newspaper blasted the "humiliating appeasement posture of the United States," and another concluded, "Instead of dealing a severe blow of retaliation against a series of barbarous acts of bellicosity committed by the North Korean communist aggressors, the world's biggest power seems to have started dancing to the communist 56 Philadelphia Enquirer, January 29, 1968 57 Washington Post, January 27, 1968. 58 Los Angeles telegram from Irving Pell, Philadelphia telegram from Herbert Trulick, in Johnson Library, White House Central Files, subject file, defense, ND 19/CO 151, box 210. 59 "Chronology of Diplomatic Activity in Pueblo Crisis," U.S. State Dept. report, April 29, 1968, Declassified Document Record System, document #CK3100150473, p. 298. www.wilsoncenter.org/nkidp 21
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DOCUMENT No. 10 * * * Mitchell Lern
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