PUEBLO SITREP NO. 18 (AS OF 12 NOON EST)

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06783659
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: March 31, 2021
• Case Number: F-2018-00781
• Publication Date: January 29, 1968

Approved for Release: 2021/03/25 C06783659
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SC No. 07407/68
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
Directorate of Intelligence
29 January 1968
INTELLIGENCE MEMORANDUM
Pueblo Sitrep No. 18
(As of 12 Noon EMT
1. Rumanian party Presidium member, Gheorghe Apostol,
and Vasile Vlad, chief of the central committee's foreign
relations section, were scheduled to leave Bucharest for
Pyongyang on 29 January. The trip follows a US demarche
on the Pueblo affair on 26 January to the Rumanian Foreign
Ministry which was designed to have the Rumanians use
their good offices with the North Koreans. The trip may
also be related to thicliftr''tt� ..z.... VIA picinc. over the
damper placed on any efforts toward Vietnam peace
negotiations by North Korea's "untimely" seizure of the
Pueblo.
2. The International Committee of the Red Cross
reported today that the North Koreans have not yet replied
to its request for information on the Pueblo's crew.
The committee sent its request to the North Korean Red
Cross Society on Friday on behalf of the US and the
families of the crew members.
3. The unusual activity which began on 26 January
in the Chinese North Sea Fleet appears to have returned
to normal.
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5. Reported suggestions by members of Kosygin
mission in India for an exchange of the Pueblo crew
for captured North Korean infiltrators PREFTWa Seoul
papers to put out extras on 29 January. Press reaction
was universally adverse, reflecting comments of South
Korean officials that the proposal was "inconceivable"
or "not worth considering."
6. The North Korean official who yesterday told
reporters in Damascus that Pyoncyang would "severely
punish" the Pueblo crew (see Sitrep 16) is Hang Yang-uk,
vice-president-5r-the Supreme Peoplets.Assembly
presidium since 1959. Kang holds no post in the ruling
Korean Labor (Communist) Party but carries some weight
as the uncle of Premier.Kim Il-song. A former Presbyterian
minister, Kang is also chairman of the central committee
of the North Korean Democratic Party, one of the two
minor parties allowed to exist to give North Korea a
"democratic" appearance. He often heads goodwill
delegations abroad, and in the past two years has twice
visited the Middle East-African area.
7. The Ethiopian foreign ministry informed the
US embassy in Addis Ababa on 29 January that Haile
Selassie has raised with visiting Yugoslav President
Tito the question of a Yugoslav approach to the USSR
on the Pueblo case. No details are available yet.
8. India is trying to persuade U Thant to come
to New Delhi despite the announced cancellation of
his trip. The Indians had arranged for a Thant-Kosygin
meeting and envisioned that the Pueblo case would be
the principal topic,. The Indians state that the North
Vietnamese reprcrentative in New Delhi is anxious to
meet U Thant.
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Approved for Release: 2021/03/25 C06783659