On January 5, 1968 the north Korean navy captured the US navy spy ship USS Pueblo near the coastal city of Wonsan.
In 2021, the crew of the Pueblo were awarded $2.3 billion in "reparations" from a US district court. How did this happen?👇🧵
The USS Pueblo posed as an environmental research vessel but was a US navy spy ship conducting missions against north Korea & the Soviet Union.
According to a report by congress, one of its missions was to see how north Korea would respond if a US navy spy ship was nearby.
On January 5, 1968 the north Korean navy captured the US navy spy ship USS Pueblo near the coastal city of Wonsan.
After 10 months of negotiation between north Korea and the US, north Korea agreed to release the Pueblo crew in exchange for an apology from the US.
82 of the crew members and the remains of one American were returned to the US on December 23, 1968.
The USS Pueblo is still in north Korea, and is used today as a site of education about national security issues.
Last February, 61 former Navy crew members and 110 family members were awarded $2.3 billion dollars in “reparations” by a US district court against north Korea in a case John Doe A-1 et al. v. Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
thediplomat.com/2021/03/north-…
Typically, sovereign nations have sovereign immunity and cannot be tried by a different nation’s courts.
But the US claims power to try nations that they label as state sponsors of terrorism (currently: Cuba, north Korea, Syria, Iran) under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.
In this way, US courts have awarded tens of billions of dollars to plaintiffs in cases against “state sponsors of terrorism.” North Korea alone has been tried 7 times in US courts and ordered to pay over $3.7 billion in reparations.
ncnk.org/resources/brie…
The USS Pueblo crew members and their families qualified to receive $20 million of the $2.3 billion from the US Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.
The rest of the plaintiffs’ “reparations” can come from seizures of north Korean assets, justified by sanctions.
For instance in 2019, the US seized a north Korean cargo ship, Wise Honest, which federal courts later awarded to the families of Otto Warmbier and Rev. Kim Dong-shik (plaintiffs in similar state sponsored terrorism cases).
The idea of north Korea owing “reparations” to the US but not the other way around is a farce.
US law is a tool of US imperialism; it operates on an assumption of supremacy over other countries, rather than a mutual recognition of sovereignty.
Sources:
english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_e…
voanews.com/amp/usa_23-bil…
ncnk.org/resources/brie…
foreignpolicy.com/2021/02/25/nor…
news.usni.org/2021/02/25/fed…
washingtonpost.com/world/national…
navytimes.com/news/your-navy…
theguardian.com/us-news/2021/f…
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