No Kum-sok

During the Korean War, No applied to join the Korean People's Navy and was accepted after he lied in the selection test. At the naval academy, No won the favor of his history professor who later helped No in the pilot selection test. After passing the selection test, No was promoted to ensign, and brought to Manchuria for flight training. He subsequently received promotion to the rank of lieutenant and then to senior lieutenant. He flew more than 100 combat missions during the war.[7]

No's MiG-15 at Gimpo Airport on September 21, 1953, minutes after No's defection and arrival.

On the morning of September 21, 1953, No flew his Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 from Sunan just outside Pyongyang to Kimpo Air Base in South Korea.[8][9] 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).[10] During the flight, he was not chased by North Korean aircraft (as he was too far away), nor was he interdicted by American air or ground forces;[10] U.S. radar near Kimpo had been shut down temporarily that morning for routine maintenance.[4] No landed the wrong way on the runway, almost hitting an F-86 Sabre jet landing at the same time from the opposite direction.[9][10] Captain Dave William veered out of the way and exclaimed over the radio "It's a goddamn MiG!".[10] Another American pilot, Captain Jim Sutton, who was circling the airport, said that if No had tried to land in the right direction, he would have been spotted and shot down.[10] 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 that was placed in the cockpits of North Korean aircraft, and then threw up his arms in surrender at approaching airbase security guards.[10]

After being taken into custody and debriefed by CIA operative "Andy Brown" (born Arseny Yankovsky, son of Yuri Yankovsky), No received a $100,000 (equivalent to $1,093,781 in 2022) 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.[11] 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 pilots would not have understood the purchasing power of the US dollar; he said the program would have been more effective if they had offered a good job and residence in North America. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was against paying defectors.[12]

There were repercussions for No's defection. According to Captain Lee Un-yong, a Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force flight instructor who defected to South Korea two years after No, General Wan-yong, the top commander of the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force, was demoted, and five of No's air force comrades and commanders were executed.[13] One of those killed was Lieutenant Kun Soo-sung, No's best friend and fellow pilot.[13] No's parents would have also been punished for their son's defection, but his father was already dead (having been killed in the Korean War) and his mother had already defected to the South. The fate of No's uncle and the rest of his family remains unknown.[13]

No's MiG-15 on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

After No surrendered his aircraft, it was taken to Okinawa, where it was given USAF markings and test-flown by Captain H.E. Collins and Major Chuck Yeager. The MiG-15 was later shipped to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base after a U.S. offer to return it to its rightful owner was ignored.[8] It is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force.

• Blaine Harden (2015). 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. Viking. ISBN 978-0670016570.