Hmmm….North Korean? Well Canpark, it never occured to me of this possibility besides the Soviet pilot scenario.
If its North Korean, now that would be interesting wouldn’t it? 😮 Possible for you to share about where you read/heard about “the DPRK sent many pilots to fly VietNamese jets during the war and performed very well..” ?
North Korea honours Vietnam war dead
The second-most-senior leader in North Korea, Kim Yong-nam, has paid his respects to his country’s servicemen who died during the Vietnam War.
Mr Kim’s visit to a cemetery near Hanoi comes a week after North Korea admitted for the first time that members of its military had taken part in the conflict.
Hundreds of North Korean fighter pilots are thought to have flown missions against the American and South Vietnamese military during the war.
One of the aims of Mr Kim’s visit to Vietnam is to get food aid as North Korea is facing another year of severe food shortages.
Vietnam is one of the world’s largest rice producers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1435540.stm
N Korea admits Vietnam war role
North Korea has made its first official confirmation that it sent jet fighter pilots into action against American forces during the Vietnam War.
State-run media reports quoted the late North Korean leader Kim Il Sung, as telling pilots to fight in the war as if the Vietnamese sky were their own.
The reports did not say how many North Korean pilots took part. Pyongyang also sent weapons, ammunition and two million sets of uniforms.
The decision to actively support Communist North Vietnam was taken in 1965, and endorsed by a meeting of the ruling Workers Party the following year, said the reports.
South Korea also took part in the Vietnam War, which broke out a decade after the two Koreas fought their own bitter conflict, which lasted three years and ended in an armed truce and not a permanent peace treaty.
Ideologically close
About 320,000 South Koreans fought alongside US troops – the largest foreign contingent after the Americans – and more than 5,000 died.
Pyongyang was ideologically close to Hanoi for many years, and gave military and political support during the Vietnam War.
But relations cooled when Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 and suffered another setback when Hanoi established diplomatic ties with Seoul in 1992.
Ties between the two Cold War allies have warmed recently, with Vietnam’s voicing support for the inter-Korean peace process.
The head of North Korea’s national assembly and nominal head of state, Kim Yong Nam, is also due to visit Hanoi next week.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1427367.stm
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