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• Author: International Law Group, PLLC
• Pages: 187

Page 187

Federal Court awards significant damages against North Korea for mistreating crew of U S.S. Pueblo

On December 31, 2008, a federal district judge in D.C. awarded a default judgment of more than $65 million to several U.S. Navy men whom North Korean authorities had captured and tortured after it had seized the U.S. intelligence-gathering ship U.S.S. Pueblo in January 1968 during the Cold War. The Plaintiff s were William Thomas Massie, Donald Raymond McClarren, Dunnie Richard Tuck and the estate of Cdr. Lloyd Bucher (the former commanding officer). North Korea claimed the ship had been inside its coastal zone while the U.S. Navy contended it lay in international waters. One of the U.S. ship's 83 crew members was killed and 10 others were wounded. The North Koreans released the crew members after 11 months of captivity. Some of the torture described to the Court included "severe physical beatings with karate blows, broom handles, belt buckles, boards and chairs, along with punches with rifle butts and whatever else that was handy." The court found that Plaintiff s Massie, Tuck, and McClarren suffered grave physical and mental harm over the past 39 years and will probably continue to do so for the rest of their lives...