No Kum-sok | |
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No in the early 1950s
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Native name | Chosongul: 노금석 Hanja: 盧今錫 RR: No Geum-seuk MR: No Kŭm-sŏk |
Birth name | No Kum-sok |
Nickname(s) | "Okamura Kyoshi" |
Born |
Shinko, Kankyōnandō, Japanese Korea (now Sinhung County, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea) |
January 10, 1932
Allegiance | North Korea (defected) |
Service/branch |
Korean People's Army Air Force Korean People's Navy |
Years of service | 1949–1953 |
Rank | Lieutenant |
Kenneth H. Rowe (born No Kum-sok; January 10, 1932) 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 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 Kum-sok.
No was born in northern Korea when the country was occupied by the Japanese. His first name, "Kum", means "gold" in Korean.
Growing up as a child in Japanese-occupied Korea, No was forced by the Japanese to use the Japanese-sounding name Okamura Kyoshi.
His father was a baseball player for a company's team. During World War II, No supported Japan and considered becoming a kamikaze pilot, but his father was adamantly against it. No's support for Imperial Japan waned and he became pro-American, though he had to hide his pro-Americanism due to the dangers of being recognized as being an admirer of the U.S. in northern Korea at the time.
In early 1948, a teenage No attended a speech by Kim Il-sung. Though No was against Communism, he found Kim to be a capable orator. However, No had to keep his anti-Communist views hidden, due to the danger of what would happen if North Korean authorities had found out about them.
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 1000 km/h (620 mph). During the flight he was not chased by North Korean planes (as he was too far away), nor was he interdicted by American air or ground forces; U.S. 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 a 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 before throwing up his arms in surrender at approaching airbase security guards.