A Look at US-NKorean Military Encounters

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007 | 11:41 a.m.

A glance at past military encounters between the U.S. and North Korea.

- 1953: A July armistice ended the three-year Korean War and the Demilitarized Zone was formed. U.S. soldiers inside the zone serve as a trip wire to deter hostilities between the two Koreas.

- 1968: The North captured the USS Pueblo on Jan. 23, 1968 while it was on an intelligence-gathering mission off the North Korean coast and held 82 Americans prisoners for 11 months. The U.S. said it was in international waters, but the North said the ship was in its marine territory. The vessel is the only active-duty U.S. warship still in the hands of a foreign power.

- 1969: In April, a North Korean plane shot down a U.S. Navy EC-121 surveillance plane, killing all 31 Americans aboard.

- 1976: Two U.S. Army officers were killed by North Korean troops as they tried to chop down a tree in the DMZ to improve surveillance of the communist forces.

- 2002: Acting at the behest of the United States, the Spanish navy intercepted a freighter in December carrying a dozen Scud-like missiles from North Korea to Yemen. Yemen protested, and the freighter was released.

- 2003: On March 2, four armed North Korean fighter jets intercepted an Air Force reconnaissance aircraft over the Sea of Japan. U.S. officials said one of the fighters used its radar in a manner that indicated it might be preparing to attack, although no shots were fired. The U.S. plane broke off its mission and returned unharmed to its base in Kadena, Japan.

- 2004: U.S. warships with intercontinental ballistic missile tracking technology patrolled the Sea of Japan and U.S. spy planes routinely gathered information on North Korea.