09-151.pdf

Following the signing of the document which, according to Lee
(2001a), justified the seizure of the Pueblo, the 82-man crew led by
Commander Bucher and the remains of one seaman were, as had been
agreed, returned on December 23 two hours later via “the Bridge of No
Return.” The crew had travelled from P’yôngyang via Kaesông to the
bridge. They returned the following day to San Diego. The crew’s
uniforms and possessions were later transferred to the Korean War
Memorial Museum in P’yôngyang. In October 1999, the Pueblo was
moved around the peninsula from Wônsan on the east coast to the
Taedong River in P’yôngyang on the west coast where it is now a
museum and tourist attraction.
On December 23, the spokesman of the North Korean Foreign
Ministry said: “This means the ignominious defeat of the U.S. imperialist
aggressors and constitutes another great victory for the
Korean people.” The Korean Central News Agency explained:
“Today in Panmunjom, the historical place where the U.S. imperialist
aggressors sustained a miserable defeat in the war against the Korean
people fifteen years ago and, bending the knee before the Korean people,
signed an instrument of surrender, focusing the attention of the people the
world over once again as the U.S. imperialists knelt to the Korean people
and apologized for the incident of the armed spy ship Pueblo.” 185
The newspaper recorded the full text of the document Major
General Woodward had signed but the receipt clause he had insisted
on inserting at the end was excluded. According to Downs (1999),
several years later an NNSC officer who visited the Korean War
185_ Downs, ibid., pp. 144-5, 305: fn. 55; Holmstedt, Månadsrapport januari 1972:
Bilaga 2 (n. p., February 8, 1972), p. 1; Lee, op. cit., 1998(c), p. 10: 2001(a), p. 39;
Lerner, op. cit., pp. 2, 219; Mobley, op. cit., pp. 89, 159. Original quotation marks.
226 Peace-keeping in the Korean Peninsula