Wanted: North Korean Assets

William Thomas Massie’s nightmares almost always begin in a dusty prison cell. His arms are lashed behind his back, and North Korean guards are karate-chopping his neck, kicking his groin and ankles, and smashing his face with fists and rifle butts.

The frigid room is illuminated only by tannin-tinted light trickling through newspaper-covered windows. The guards are screaming. One thrusts an assault rifle into Massie’s mouth. The soldier’s finger is on the trigger. Sweat stings Massie’s eyes. He is terrified.

When he wakes up, his body aches. Sometimes he sobs.

Those nightmares have pursued Massie for decades, vivid flashbacks of his “11 months of hell” in a brutal North Korean prison after he and 81 other members of the USS Pueblo were captured in 1968. Ever since, Massie and many of the other men have struggled with torture’s legacy. [Washington Post]

I’ll let you read the rest on your own — every sickening, infuriating word of what these guys went through.

Yet nearly thirty years after the end of their captivity, Massie and others sought and won a judgment of more than $60 million against the North Korean government, taking advantage of an exception in the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Massie’s laywer and I have been in contact after Massie found this site on the web. I’ve passed along a few suggestions about where they might find North Korean assets to attach and seize to satisfy the judgment.

No doubt, these men who have suffered so much would appreciate other suggestions, to include the names of companies that are doing business with and paying money to North Korea, where those companies keep their assets, and how those assets are transferred to North Korea. Unless you’re going to link to something that’s open source and reliable, I’ll probably edit your link. If you want to drop me a tip off-line, please e-mail me at onefreekorea[at]yahoo[dot]com.