Chances Slim for Return of USS Pueblo

In this Korean Central News Agency photo released by Korea News Service in Tokyo Monday, May 7, 2007, North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, center with no hat, inspects the facilities of Korean People's Army Unit 977 in their base in the country. The source did not disclose date and location but KCNA reported the inspection on Saturday, May 5, 2007. North Korea is ready to quickly shut down its nuclear reactor after receiving funds that had been frozen in a banking dispute, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. (AP Photo/Korean Central News Agency via Korea News Service) (AP)

WASHINGTON -- The State Department says it can't negotiate the return of the USS Pueblo from North Korea while the United States is trying to get the communist nation to drop its nuclear ambitions.

A State Department official turned aside a suggestion by Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., that the U.S. demand the North Koreans return the Pueblo, taken in 1968. Allard suggested offering to swap a Korean flag captured in the 19th century in exchange for the ship.

Allard said his constituents are eager to see North Korean return the Pueblo, which is named for a Colorado town and is the only active-duty U.S. warship in the hands of a foreign power.

In a letter to Allard last week, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, Jeffrey Bergner, said there are substantial barriers to getting the Pueblo back.

The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations, Bergner wrote. Also, the North Koreans haven't offered to return the ship.

"The State Department sees little near-term prospect of negotiating the return of the USS Pueblo," Bergner wrote.

Allard hasn't given up, spokesman Steve Wymer said. Allard introduced the resolution in Congress last month demanding that North Korea return the Pueblo. He will wait and see what happens and follow up in a few weeks, Wymer said.

"Senator Allard wants the Pueblo back," Wymer said. "Anyhing he can do to make that happen, he will look into it."

The Pueblo was taken Jan. 23, 1968, after being sent defenseless on an intelligence-gathering mission off the North Korean coast.

Navy records show it was in international waters when it was captured, though the North Koreans insist it was inside the Korean coastal zone.

The North Koreans display the ship as a trophy. U.S. officials have been told North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Il, decreed that the ship should be used for "an anti-American education."

The U.S. government believes the Pueblo is being held illegally, Bergner wrote to Allard.

North Korea has occasionally suggested to private citizens that it would trade the ship for high-level bilateral talks or for large compensation, Bergner wrote. But the U.S. rejects the idea of such a trade because it would legitimize North Korea's action.

Advocates in Colorado argue that the United States should at least return the flag to the Koreans as a show of good intentions.

The flag was captured from Korean Gen. Uh Je-yeon in an 1871 battle after American ships attempting to open Korea to trade invaded Kanghwa Island, outside Seoul. It is on display at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.