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North Korea expressed its willingness to return a U.S. navy ship that it seized during the Cold War when New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson visited there last week, a source said Sunday.
The North Korean navy captured the USS Pueblo environmental research ship and its 83 crew members on Jan. 21, 1968, some 40km from the North Korean port of Wonsan.
On Monday while Governor Richardson was visiting the Pueblo, which is on display in Pyongyang's Daedong River, North Korean officials suggested the vessel could be returned if relations between the North and the U.S. improve.
Pyongyang made a similar offer in August 2005 to Donald Gregg, the former U.S. ambassador to South Korea, saying the ship could go home if a "top-level American official" would visit the North.
And when Lee Hae-chan, the former prime minister of South Korea, suggested North Korea return the vessel to improve its relations with the U.S., North Korea seemed open to the idea.
If there is improvement in North Korea-U.S. relations, such as the removal of the North from the U.S. list of states that sponsor terrorism as agreed to under the Feb. 13 agreement, there is a possibility that North Korea will return the Pueblo.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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