As Clint Eatswood said in Heart Break Ridge, “That doesn’t mean we’ll be taking showers together”.
If he really wants to say thanks then he can sail the USS Pueblo back south, we gave him his ship back, he can return the favor.
Generally, Ronery’s gratitude doesn’t rast rong.
Kimmy is still ronery.
Glad it all worked out. The NK’s got their ship back. Now, what the NK’s needs to do is give us back the USS Pueblo. As reagan_fanatic said in post #8, return it, unmolested, and that will be that. It would go a long way to normalizing relationships. There would be a boat load of other issues to deal with, also. Just start by giving our ship back. Quid pro quo.
The "pirate force" was no such thing --it was a Somali security team that was providing a SERVICE to the DPRK's while weapons were being offloaded to onshore BUYERS...!
But when the US showed up, whaddya think is worse:
1. "Oh these dastardly pirates..! Help...!"
OR
2. "Oh, well, we blackies and DPRK's were just offloading these here weapons to Muzzie warlords entrusted to fight against US allies, the Ethiopians...!!"
WHICH ONE...?
And why would the US Ship insist on escorting the DPRK ship to the nearest port to offload the "pirates" from the DPRK ship for proper judgement?
Was it because (as the US ship claimed) cuz they feard the DPRK's would do the "pirates" in, or because the Americans feared, that the muzzies were DPRK PARTNERS and NO PROSECUTION was waiting for them...?
When you eat tree-bark soup, you do biz with ANYONE, and that goes double if the clients are America haters...