A U.S. court has ordered North Korea to pay damages to the crew and family of a U.S. naval ship captured in 1968.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the North to pay two-point-three billion U.S. dollars or two-point-five trillion won to the surviving crew and families of the spy ship USS Pueblo.

According to filings posted to its website on Wednesday, the court ruled that the 171 plaintiffs, including the surviving crew and families of those now dead, are owed compensatory damages of one-point-15 billion dollars, but doubled that for punitive damages against the North. 

The USS Pueblo carrying 83 crew members was on a scouting mission in waters off Wonsan in the East Sea on January 23, 1968, when it was attacked by North Korean naval vessels and fighter jets. 

One man was killed and several were wounded. The 82 surviving crew members were captured and held prisoner for eleven months.