On January 23rd, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a U.S. Navy Intelligence Gathering ship, was on a routine

surveillance mission in international waters off the coast of North Korea.

While on surveillance duty, it was intercepted by North Korean patrol boats.

Shots were fired, the crew was captured, and it set off one of the biggest international

incidents of the Cold War. Learn more about the Pueblo incident, how and why it happened on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. One thing to understand which underlines this entire episode is that technically speaking

the Korean War never ended. There was never a formal peace treaty that was put in the place

to end the conflict. There was only a ceasefire which is still

in effect today. So as far as North Korea was concerned, they were at war, a war that

started in 1950, but at least mentally was still ongoing.

The ship which would become the USS Pueblo began its life in

1944 as a US Army freight and passenger ship.

There were a lot of such ships built during the war and when it was launched it didn't even merit a name.

It was simply known as FP 344.

It was used as a training vessel manned by the Coast Guard in the last days of the war

and it was out of commission by 1954. Fast forward to

1964. The United States is in the middle of the Cold War. The US Navy engaged in

radio surveillance and had a small number of ships that were

outfitted for the task. They would intercept radio signals from

communist block countries and then decrypt the signals that they would intercept.

This was pretty standard practice for both sides during the Cold War and it's something

that's going on today. Radio waves are sent out into the ether and can be picked up by pretty much

everyone. However, to receive the signal, depending on the strength and frequency which is being used, you have to be in the right place.

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