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How many times has North Korea "bullied" the United States? Shooting down A U.S. warplane that killed 31 U.S. soldiers, forcibly detained U.S. submarines, and captured 82 U.S. soldiers to force the United States to apologize, occurred in the 1960s and 1970s. We all know that the United States was already a world military power during World War II. Possess nuclear weapons, advanced fighter warships, and more. To put it bluntly, in terms of military power, it could completely crush most of the countries in the world at that time, and North Korea could not oppose the United States. So how does North Korea "bully" the United States? Why hasn't the United States fought back?
In 1961, there was a factional unrest within South Korea, and Park Chung-hee took the opportunity to send troops to control Seoul and subsequently became the president of South Korea. At that time, North Korea was far stronger than South Korea in terms of economy and military, so there were many people or students in South Korea who longed for North Korea. In 1967, Park Chung-hee arrested a large number of such people. All his actions are also constantly intensifying the situation on the 38th Parallel, the two sides are constantly engaged in military conflicts, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula has become very tense.
On January 5, 1968, the United States dispatched the "Pueblo" armed spy ship to investigate the situation on the Korean Peninsula and collect relevant communications intelligence. In order to cover people's eyes, the United States disguised this spy ship as a fishing boat, "Pueblo" in addition to a variety of reconnaissance capabilities, there are two 12.5 mm machine guns equipped with self-protection, before the implementation of this mission, the US military also did the relevant risk assessment, the final result is that "Pueblo" is fully equipped to complete the task of the task, send spy ships to other countries to collect information this kind of thing, before the United States did not do less, each time will be very smooth, there has been no problem. And it has been disguised as a fishing boat, even if other countries find out that it is a US warship, for unnecessary trouble, and finally expelled from the sea, there will be no armed conflict. The same American soldiers did not think there would be any danger, unless there was a problem with the Pueblo ship, otherwise it was a very simple task. With North Korea's military strength at that time, the United States did not think that North Korea would make any "excessive" reaction, but North Korea was "not playing cards according to common sense" this time.
On January 11, 1968, the Pueblo sailed from a Japanese port and sailed into the waters off the east coast of North Korea, where it floated and captured a piece of communications at regular intervals. Although he did not think that there would be a threat to his life, but the purpose of coming here was to gather intelligence, in order to complete this mission, the captain was also very careful, in order to avoid being detected by the North Koreans, has been kept in a state of silence, so it floated in the sea for a few days, the time to January 23, "Pueblo" has sailed to the waters only 13 nautical miles from the port of Wonsan, this time encountered a North Korean patrol warship. For the "fishing boat" of unknown origin, the North Korean Navy sent out a radio to ask which country's fishing boat it was. The situation between the two Koreas is very tense now, and at this time a ship from other countries has been found, and the North Korean side is rapidly approaching here in order to be safe. When asked by the North Korean Navy, the captain of the Pueblo did not panic and replied normally that they were a research vessel and raised an American flag. It was also at this time that two fighter planes had been circling in the sky, and it was a North Korean MiG-12 fighter. It is already clear that North Korea is a prepared operation.
The captain of the Pueblo looked at the North Korean warplanes flying from the sky and had an ominous premonition in his heart. Just as he was trying to escape, the North Korean Navy directly asked the Pueblo to dock for inspection. Hearing this order, the captain of the "Pueblo" knew that there was no way to delay any longer, and if he really accepted the inspection of the North Korean Navy, everything would be exposed, although disguised as a fishing boat, but still equipped with this American machine gun, in addition, the crew of the ship were soldiers, and it was impossible to hide it. The intelligence gathered on the ship can only be destroyed now, and even if it is detained by North Korea, it will leave little evidence. Orders were then given to burn the information that had been printed on paper and destroy all reconnaissance equipment, and if it was too late to destroy it, it was thrown directly into the sea, and at the same time trying to escape the sea. The North Korean Navy saw that the "fishing boat" did not follow orders and tried to escape. Also understand that the U.S. troops on the ship have been weak-minded, and then no longer polite, directly launched an attack on the "Pueblo", directly killed a U.S. soldier in the chaos, and four other people were injured, the DprK Navy suddenly changed its attitude, but also made the U.S. soldiers on the ship frightened, the DPRK Navy so decisively launched an attack, if you resist, there will definitely be more casualties, that is, you can't fight and run, you can only choose to surrender. After the North Korean Navy boarded the Pueblo, it found that the U.S. military had only destroyed a small part of the equipment and intelligence documents.
In this conflict, North Korea captured 82 American soldiers, in addition to the body of one American soldier was also transported back to North Korea. After this incident occurred, it shocked the countries of the world, did not expect that the Korean War had only ended for more than ten years, and there had been a military conflict between the DPRK and the United States, if it was not handled well, it was likely that a second Korean War would occur, where did the DPRK have the courage to capture American soldiers? Will there be other countries that secretly support North Korea? For a time, the undercurrent surged. No one knows how this thing will go.
This incident also shocked the US government, as one of the world's largest military powers, the United States can not choose to be patient, in order to show their strength, hundreds of US fighters of various types and purposes flew to the air base in South Korea, and at the same time there are aircraft carrier formations sailing also came, it can be said that the United States has suppressed the territory, increased its military deployment on the Korean Peninsula, and wants to put pressure on the DPRK to force it to return the "Pueblo" and the captured soldiers. But North Korea's hard-line attitude is also beyond the imagination of other countries, actively preparing for war at home, and asking the United States to apologize and promise that such incidents will never happen in the future. The United States was confused by North Korea's set of "combined fists" and wondered why North Korea dared to act like this, not seeing the aircraft carrier group and hundreds of fighter jets. So the United States did not really provoke war. Another reason is that the United States is already deeply involved in the Vietnam War, and if the two-front operation does cause a great burden on the United States. A month later, in addition to issuing condemnations, the United States offered to negotiate the matter, demanding that North Korea return the vessel and release the American soldiers. After nearly a year of negotiations, the final result of the negotiations between the two sides was that the United States admitted its mistake, apologized to North Korea and promised never to do it again. North Korea accepted an apology from the United States and returned captured American soldiers and a corpse, but left behind the Pueblo, and the United States could only accept this reality. Later, North Korea dragged the Pueblo to the banks of the Tatong River and became part of the patriotic education base. After the return of 82 U.S. soldiers, the United States took the captain and vice-captain to a military court for trial on the grounds that they had fallen without a fight as soldiers.
This incident ended in this way, which made all countries quite surprised, and the United States actually "admitted"? In fact, after the incident, China and the Soviet Union actively expressed their support for North Korea and were ready to support North Korea at any time. Having lived through a Korean War, the United States deeply understood that going to war with North Korea was not a wise choice. So only accept such a result.
However, the U.S. reconnaissance operation did not end like this, since the spy ship could not complete the mission, and the aircraft collected intelligence. The EC121M AWACS aircraft was fitted with the state-of-the-art APS95 radar system of the time, sufficient for reconnaissance missions. On April 15, 1969, American early warning aircraft took off from Atsugi base in Japan as usual, because during this time, hundreds of missions had been carried out, and there had never been an accident. This kind of mission of gathering intelligence is also called "the simplest and safest mission" by the soldiers of the US Air Force, and at 12:30 noon, the US ground base detected the presence of two fighter jets over North Korea, but did not expect that this was actually flying towards the EC121M early warning aircraft. After almost an hour, the U.S. military ground base found that the early warning aircraft and the two North Korean warplanes had disappeared from the radar. The atmosphere in the base was instantly tense, and two fighter jets and two warships were immediately sent to the sea area for search and rescue. However, it was not very easy to carry out search and rescue operations on the vast sea, until the next day the North Korean side issued a message saying that the US reconnaissance plane found yesterday had been shot down by our army, and not a single American soldier survived. This news was instantly known to all countries. The newly appointed US President Richard Nixon was also reported, very angry, to know that there were 31 American soldiers on the EC121M early warning aircraft, and all of them were killed. The U.S. carrier group sailed to the east of North Korean waters at the first time, and this time the two U.S. aircraft carriers conducted military exercises in this area.
The United States repeats its old tricks and first carries out armed deterrence, hoping that the DPRK will be able to "understand" a little. However, North Korea has seen through the US tactics and still responds strongly. Although the United States prepared 22 retaliatory plans, none of them could guarantee that war would not be provoked, and in the end the two sides resolved the issue through negotiations. Afterwards, the United States did not send a reconnaissance plane for a while.
In 1976, North Korea and the United States almost exchanged fire on a tree. There is a public area on the 38th line, where there is a tree with long branches and leaves, which affects the line of sight of the south Korean sentry, and the US military wants to cut it down. On August 19, a U.S. military captain and a lieutenant arrived in a common area with 12 men. There are also two axes and a chainsaw. But the tree to be cut down was planted by the North Korean side, which is believed to be planted by a leader. It has a different meaning. Because the public area stipulated that neither side could carry guns, five North Korean soldiers came to stop it empty-handed. There was a captain named Park Chul on the North Korean side, who was very good at hand, and he didn't know how to grab the axe in his hand, and then a smooth split, the US captain was killed on the spot. The U.S. lieutenant didn't last long and was knocked to the ground. The remaining 12 people did not dare to stay here any longer and ran back. The U.S. government reacted very fiercely, and it deployed fighter jets to the South Korean base, and at the same time, an aircraft carrier also flew to the Sea of Japan, and the United States selected 64 taekwondo masters from the South Korean army. The U.S. side can be said to be ready to deal with various situations, and there are 64 masters in the fight. The war is also ready.
North Korea was then informed that we were about to cut down a tree that would affect the view. The North Korean side has not reacted to this. In the end, the United States cut down the tree, but because of this incident, two officers lost their lives. On the North Korean side, when the U.S. military was cutting down trees, a meeting was held to commend Captain Park Chul.
Although the DPRK is inferior to the United States in terms of national strength, its spirit of not fearing hegemonism and daring to challenge it is indeed rare. This confirms the saying that "all US imperialism is a paper tiger", and although the United States is a powerful country, it is impossible to rely on strong military power to run rampant in the world. Powerful weapons, while a means of threat, are the basis for peaceful coexistence.