Since North Korea seems to like being in the news so god damn much, why not read about that one time one of their own pilots defected in a high-tech jet because he hated living there.
The pilot in question was one, No Kum-Sok, a name that would be humerous if it didn’t belong to a man who owned a set of balls cooler and denser than frozen steel.
The story goes that on the 21st of September, 1953, No Kum-Sok suddenly decided that he’d had just about enough of North Korea’s bullshit and during a routine flight, he broke formation and flew directly to a South Korean military base. Despite the fact he was flying a plane covered tip to tail in North Korean livery and landed at the wrong end of the runway, a South Korean ground crewman still waved No Kum-Sok into a nearby hanger, presumably because he couldn’t fathom that any enemy would have the balls to pull of such a brazen manoeuvre.
Ignoring the crewman, No Kum-Sok casually switched off his engine and climbed out of his plane with his hands raised in the air, anticipating a severe beating from the South Korean dogs he’d heard so much shit talked about in all of that North Korean propaganda. However, the beating never came and, much to No Kum-Sok’s surprise, he was immediately greeted with cheers, handshakes and approximately all of the high fives. You see, as noted in the image at the top of this screen, the US were very keen to get their hands on a MiG-15, which just so happened to be the exact kind of plane No Kum-Sok hand been flying when he decided to peace the hell out.
The US were so determined to get one of these planes that they’d promised any pilot who delivered one to South Korea $100,000 and guaranteed political asylum in a country of their choosing as part of something known as Operation Moolah. Something No Kum-Sok only found out about when someone asked him what he was going to do with the money at a news conference. No Kum-Sok’s arrival was so unexpected that when he learned about the offer and tried to claim it, he found out that the US government hadn’t actually set aside any money to pay him because they didn’t think any pilot would have the testicular fortitude and sheer gall to do something that ballsy.
When it dawned on officials that No Kum-Sok actually had no idea that they were offering the equivalent of several million dollars to any defector to deliver them a plane, they asked him why on Earth he’d risked his life to defect in what was at the time, one of the most prized military assets on the entire planet. To which No Kum-Sok casually replied “I was sick and tired of the Red deceit“.
No Kum-Sok later emigrated to the United States where he continued being a badass, earning two degrees and working for some of the biggest names in the engineering business. Which you’d expect from a man who gave North Korea the middle finger in the most metal way possible, screaming away from their air space in a million dollar piece of supersonic firepower.
