I started looking around for Russian pilots in Vietnam and came across this. I never heard anything like this before so this web site is the only source I came across. Could this be true?
VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, APRIL 1, 2000.
NORTH KOREAN PILOTS FOUGHT THE VIETNAM WAR
Last week, according to reports from Yonhap, the South Korean News Agency, there were many North Koreans military servicemen who fought the Vietnam War on the side of communist North Vietnam, and at least 14 of them were killed and buried in marked graves about 38 miles from Hanoi. Yonghap said 11 of the 14 Koreans were fighting as combat pilots, the other 3 were warplane mechanics. According to inscriptions on tombstones at the grave sites, they were killed by American bombs or were shot down over North Vietnam skies in mid-1967.
A Vietnamese communist local government official confirmed the direct participation of North Korea in the Vietnam War in a telephone interview.
"It's not a newly-found place. We built the grave a long time ago and every year people from the North Korean embassy in Hanoi come here to pay homage to the martyrs," he said as reported by Reuters.
As far back as 1967, there were information from North Vietnamese POWs and ralliers (or defectors, or chieu hoi) reported to the South Vietnamese intelligence agencies about North Korean fighter pilots in North Vietnam. The sources said that North Vietnamese were praising the North Koreans as the best jet pilots who often led the intercepting missions and brought down a lot of American warplanes, far better than North Vietnamese fighter pilots.
South Korean sources estimated that more than 800 North Korean Air Force military men were serving in North Vietnam before 1975.
The POWs and defectors also told stories about Soviet jet pilots in dogfights against the Americans over North Vietnam's skies. The Soviet pilots, as well as the North Koreans, always flew warplanes bearing North Vietnam colors.
Rumors, later confirmed, ran that some Soviet pilots' jets were shot down by the Americans and they landed safely by parachutes on the ground. The Soviet pilots never wore insignias or marks to tell that they were from the Soviet Union.
They were immediately arrested and were beaten to pulp by the militiamen in the area, most of whom didn't understand Russian. Some who could tell that the downed pilots were Russians usually beat them more brutally as if they had mistaken them for the Americans.
The question is why the South Koreans and the Vietnamese Communists chose this moment to disclose such an "already-known secret?"
Link
http://www.vietquoc.com/apr01-00.htm
VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, APRIL 1, 2000.
NORTH KOREAN PILOTS FOUGHT THE VIETNAM WAR
Last week, according to reports from Yonhap, the South Korean News Agency, there were many North Koreans military servicemen who fought the Vietnam War on the side of communist North Vietnam, and at least 14 of them were killed and buried in marked graves about 38 miles from Hanoi. Yonghap said 11 of the 14 Koreans were fighting as combat pilots, the other 3 were warplane mechanics. According to inscriptions on tombstones at the grave sites, they were killed by American bombs or were shot down over North Vietnam skies in mid-1967.
A Vietnamese communist local government official confirmed the direct participation of North Korea in the Vietnam War in a telephone interview.
"It's not a newly-found place. We built the grave a long time ago and every year people from the North Korean embassy in Hanoi come here to pay homage to the martyrs," he said as reported by Reuters.
As far back as 1967, there were information from North Vietnamese POWs and ralliers (or defectors, or chieu hoi) reported to the South Vietnamese intelligence agencies about North Korean fighter pilots in North Vietnam. The sources said that North Vietnamese were praising the North Koreans as the best jet pilots who often led the intercepting missions and brought down a lot of American warplanes, far better than North Vietnamese fighter pilots.
South Korean sources estimated that more than 800 North Korean Air Force military men were serving in North Vietnam before 1975.
The POWs and defectors also told stories about Soviet jet pilots in dogfights against the Americans over North Vietnam's skies. The Soviet pilots, as well as the North Koreans, always flew warplanes bearing North Vietnam colors.
Rumors, later confirmed, ran that some Soviet pilots' jets were shot down by the Americans and they landed safely by parachutes on the ground. The Soviet pilots never wore insignias or marks to tell that they were from the Soviet Union.
They were immediately arrested and were beaten to pulp by the militiamen in the area, most of whom didn't understand Russian. Some who could tell that the downed pilots were Russians usually beat them more brutally as if they had mistaken them for the Americans.
The question is why the South Koreans and the Vietnamese Communists chose this moment to disclose such an "already-known secret?"
Link
http://www.vietquoc.com/apr01-00.htm
