|
No Kum-Sok (later Kenneth H. Rowe; born January 10, 1932 in Sinhung, Korea)〔 is a former lieutenant of the North Korean Air Force. A few weeks after the Korean War was over, he defected to South Korea in a MiG aircraft. A biography of No Kum-Sok was published by Blaine Harden in 2015 as ''The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot: The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and The Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom'' (2015). Harden had access to newly released intelligence, and to No. ==Defection== On the morning of September 21, 1953, No flew his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 from Sunan just outside Pyongyang to the Kimpo Air Base in South Korea. The time from take-off in North Korea to landing in South Korea was 17 minutes, with the MiG reaching speeds of 620 MPH.〔Harden (2015), Chapter 11, Part 3〕 During the flight he was not chased by North Korean planes, nor was he interdicted by American air or ground forces;〔 US radar near Kimpo had been shut down temporarily that morning for routine maintenance. No landed the wrong way on the runway, almost hitting an F-86 Sabre jet landing at the same time from the opposite direction.〔 Captain Dave William veered out of the way and exclaimed over the radio "It's goddamn MiG!".〔 Another American pilot, Captain Jim Sutton who was circling the airport, said if No had tried to land in the right direction he would have been spotted and shot down.〔 No taxied the MiG into a free parking spot between two Sabre jets, got out of the plane and began tearing up a picture of Kim Il-sung he carried.〔 No received a $100,000 ($890,831 in 2014 dollars) reward offered by Operation Moolah for being the first pilot to defect with an operational aircraft, which he said he never heard of prior to his defection.〔(PsyWarrior.com ''"Operation Moolah - The Plot To Steal A MIG-15"'' )〕 No explained that North Korean pilots were not allowed to listen to South Korean radio, the leaflets broadcasting the award were not dropped in Manchuria where the pilots were based, and even if they had heard about the reward the amount of money would have been meaningless to the young communists; he said the program would have been more effective if they had offered a good job and residence in America. Eisenhower was against paying defectors.〔Harden (2015), Chapter 11, Part 5〕 There were repercussions for No's defection. According to Captain Lee Un Yong, a North Korean air force flight instructor who defected to South Korea two years after No, General Wang Yong, the top commander of the North Korean air force, was demoted, and five of No's air force comrades and commanders were executed.〔 One of those killed was Lieutenant Kun Soo Sung, No's best friend and fellow pilot.〔 No's father was already dead and his mother already defected to the South; however, he had an uncle and the fate of him and his family was never known.〔Harden (2015), Chapter 11, Part 4〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「No Kum-sok」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|