PUEBLO SITREP (AS OF 0700 EST)

Document Type: 
Collection: 
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 
00847714
Release Decision: 
RIPPUB
Original Classification: 
U
Document Page Count: 
2
Document Creation Date: 
March 16, 2022
Document Release Date: 
July 5, 2016
Sequence Number: 
Case Number: 
F-2015-00887
Publication Date: 
January 24, 1968
File: 
Body: 
Approved for Release: 2015/12/22 000847714 TOPS� 24 January 1968 CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Directorate of Intelligence 24 January 1968 INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM PUEpLO SITREP (as of 070() EST) 1. North Korea is continuing to take a hard line on the Pueblo incident. 2. At today's Military Armistice Commission meeting at panmunjom the senior Communist delegate, Maj. Gen. Pak Chung-kuk, flatly rejected a US de- mand for the immediate return of the Pueblo and its crew. He charged the Pueblo had ZUEEnted "in- tolerable provocations" whiii-IE-"illegally infil- trated (into North Korean waters) on an espionage mission" and further claimed the Pueblo's crew had fired on North Korean patrol boats., 15.5 to 17 miles from the near- est North Korean land mass. US Rear Adm. John V. Smith had demanded that Pyongyang return the ship and its 83,-man crew, apologize for the incident, and be aware that the US reserves the right to demand compensation. (b)(3) (b)(3) (b)(1) (b)(1) (b)(3) -TOP--SECRErl ----Approved for Release: 2015/12/22 000847714 Approved for Release: 2015/12/22 000847714 '1:311"E 6 ILET 5. The US Task Force led by tile nuclear powered aircraft carrier Enterprise, with destroyers Higbee, Truxton, and Osbourn has moved to a new rendezvous a765-1-70 nautical irles south of South Korea and 120 nautical miles southwest of Sasebo, Japan. The destroyers Collett and O'Hannon are steaming toward this rendezvous point. pproved for Release: 2015/12/22 000847714