N.Korea claims capture of U.S. submersible(or torpedo?)

North Korea claimed it has captured an unmanned U.S. submersible and put it on display in Pyongyang, a pro-North Korean newspaper in Japan said Monday. The U.S. dismissed the report.

The small vessel was captured during a reconnaissance mission in waters off North Korea's eastern city of Hamhung, said the Choson Sinbo newspaper, which is published by a pro-North Korean association linked to the Pyongyang government.

The newspaper report on its Web site, which is monitored in Seoul, was accompanied by a picture purported to be of the black torpedo-shaped U.S. vessel. There were no further details as to when or how North Korea obtained it.

A spokesman for the U.S. military in South Korea, David Oten, dismissed the report.

"We have nothing unaccounted for and there is no way for us to verify that this is a U.S. vessel," Oten said.

Last September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il instructed officials to put the captured vessel on public display next to the spy ship USS Pueblo, which the communist regime seized along with its crew of 82 in 1968, the newspaper said. The crew was released after 11 months.

The Pueblo, moored to the bank of the Taedong River in Pyongyang, is now the site of tours to inspire anti-U.S. sentiment among the country's 23 million people. Some 1,500 North Koreans made daily visits to the Pueblo during a recent month-long, anti-U.S. rally period, said the newspaper.

Despite repeated U.S. assurances that it has no intention of attacking the North, the communist country frequently claims that Washington seeks to invade it and that the U.S. is driving tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the brink of war.

The North recently raised regional tensions by test-launching seven missiles, including a new long-range model believed capable of reaching the U.S. that failed shortly after takeoff.

I was standing a foot away from it two weeks ago.

From my notes: it is (as per my pacing it off) 3.5 meters in length and with a circumference of about one meter. The screws are quite interesting – a double corkscrew ensemble on a central shaft and I would guess that they are counter-rotating. The fins are indeed X configured. The nose features a window on the underside covered with what appears to be thick plastic. The window is approximately the size of a saucer. Above the plastic window, at the extreme forward tip, extends one solitary shaft, like an antenna, about the diameter of a screwdriver shaft. That is approximately 30 cm in length. There are no discernable markings anywhere on the exterior. Other than the plastic window in the nose and the screws, it is entirely flat black

The galley of the Pueblo is now the theater for showing related propaganda films to tourist. Guests sit in (what appears to be) the original molded plastic chairs at the original Formica tables and look at a television on which they play a 15 minute film of the Pueblo Incident (their version). The tail end of the film features a brief recount of the capture of the “unmanned submarine.” In that film they show still photographs of the thing being carefully dismantled. (It appears that the dismantling took place right there on the beach, or maybe when they got back to Hamhung Port). In those photos it is easy to see the interior of sections of the thing. Each section is packed with discrete modules, or clusters of instruments. On those components it is clear to see the names of various US Defense contractors, as well as “Made in USA.” stamped on various parts. To my untrained eye, the image of workmanship in the photographs looked very American (i.e. thorough, well done, and complete). I know Korean workmanship well (i.e. incomplete, almost-but-not-quite correct, good enough) and what I saw in the photographs was not what I am accustomed to seeing on the peninsula.

Despite what the North Koreans told me, it was obviously not what we would think of as a submarine. It was more like a large torpedo packed with instruments. I did not serve in the Navy and have no concept of the diameter of a torpedo tube, but I would postulate that what I saw was not necessarily designed to be sent through a tube.

It is, as shown in the photo, housed behind glass and is now the third jewel in the case of captured Yanqui trophies; The USS Pueblo, the cannons from the USS Sherman, and now the “unmanned submarine.” They are all conveniently located in the heart of Pyongyang on the banks of the river in a location they have designated as that where (supposedly) Kim Il Sung’s Great Great Grandfather lead a group of Koreans in burning and sinking the Sherman, then killing the crew. It is terribly convenient that it happened right there in what is now central Pyongyang. The Pueblo unexpectedly and mysteriously appeared at that site about a decade ago after being birthed in Wonson for decades. There is no documented explanation as to how the North Koreans got the Pueblo around to the other side of the peninsula through international waters (without the US knowing and taking action to reclaim the ship). I had known of the Pueblo and Sherman for years, but the “unmanned submarine” was a startling revelation when I walked down the steps on to the quay.

Bottom line – there is something very real behind the glass, and it looks plenty American to my untrained eye. Looking at the photo of the New Mine Reconnaissance System in this page – what I saw on the banks of the river in Pyongyang looked strikingly similar – especially the screws.

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