The USS Pueblo is a US surveillance vessel that was seized by the North Koreans off the east coast of Korea in January 1968, during a heightening of tensions between the North and South. Its 82 crew members were kept as prisoners for 11 months before being released following US President Johnson's full letter of apology. The Pueblo has been preserved since then and is moored in central Pyongyang, where it is visited with great pride by groups of North Koreans.