No Kum-sok

No was born on January 10, 1932, in Shinko, Kankyōnan-dō, Korea, Empire of Japan (now in North Korea). 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-Western, though he had to hide these views due to the dangers of being recognized in northern Korea at the time. According to No, he attended a speech by Kim Il Sung in early 1948 as a teenager; although No was opposed to 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. ==Career==

in May 1954. Korean War 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. Defection 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. The time from take-off in North Korea to landing in South Korea was 17 minutes, with the MiG reaching . 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; 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. No's MiG-15 . 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. It is currently on display at the National Museum of the United States Air Force. ==Post-defection life==

in 2018 In 1954, No immigrated to the United States, where he met Vice President Richard Nixon. After immigrating, he anglicized his name to "Kenneth H. Rowe". There were repercussions for No's defection, according to Captain Lee Un-yong, a flight instructor with the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force who defected to South Korea two years after No. In the 1970s, General Wan-yong, the top commander of the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force, was demoted, and five of No's comrades and commanders in the air force were executed. Among those killed was Lieutenant Kun Soo-sung, No's best friend and fellow pilot. No's parents would have also faced punishment for their son's defection; however, his father had already died in the Korean War, and his mother had defected to the South. The fate of No's uncle and the rest of his family remains unknown. One of the pilots and a friend in his squadron, O Kuk-ryol, became a general and was considered by some the second most powerful man in North Korea. A biography of No by Blaine Harden was published 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. Harden had interviewed No and had access to newly released intelligence about him. ==Personal life==

No spoke fluent English, Japanese, Korean and Russian. He lived in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he died on December 26, 2022, at the age of 90. No stated that he never second-guessed his decision to defect from North Korea and make a new life in America. At the time of his death, No was surrounded by his wife, daughter, younger son and one grandson. ==References==