North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong Un has met with the country’s first female fighter jet pilots, calling them “heroes of Korea” and “flowers of the sky.”
Pilots Jo Kum Hyang and Rim Sol wept as they were presented with bouquets in front of their leader, who attributed their successful solo flights to their “noble revolutionary spirit, ideological acceptance of the party’s training-first policy and loyalty to the Supreme Commander,” KCNA, North Korea’s state news agency reported.
In a video released by state media, Kim watched on as the pilots performed take-off and landing drills. It was not clear exactly when they took place.
The Korean Central News Agency — the country’s state media, has been praising the prowess of the Korean People’s Air Force (KPAF) in recent months, but the planes on the airfield told a different story. The pilots were flying what appeared to be Soviet era MiG-21 supersonic fighter jets or a Chinese version of that aircraft — the Chengdu J-7 supersonic fighter jet. The MiG-21 first came into service in the late 1950s and saw considerable service in the Vietnam War.
But there is considerable doubt as to how many of those aircraft, some of them dating back to the 1950s, are airworthy.
North Korea’s most advanced combat aircraft, nearly three dozen MiG-29’s, were purchased from the Soviet Union in the late 1980s.
KCNA reported that the pilots tearfully thanked Kim “for giving them wings to fly and courage,” before pledging to fly “in the aerial front line, to safeguard Kim Jong Un through a thousand miles of clouds and ten thousand miles of fire.”
The KPAF is estimated to be the fifth-largest air force in the world, with 110,000 service personnel and 820 combat aircraft.
