No Kum-sok
North Korean Air Force officer (1932–2022)
No Kum-sok (Korean: 노금석; January 10, 1932 – December 26, 2022) was a North Korean–born American engineer and aviator who served as a senior lieutenant in the Korean People's Army Air and Anti-Air Force during the Korean War. Under colonial rule, No was required to adopt a Japanese name, Okamura Kiyoshi. Approximately two months after the end of hostilities, he defected to South Korea in a MiG-15 aircraft, and was subsequently granted political asylum in the United States. He then adopted the English name Kenneth H. Rowe.
Early life and education
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-American, 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
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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “No Kum-sok” as north Korean Air Force officer (1932–2022). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q497141. VIAF identifies the subject as 44470474. The Library of Congress control number is nr96024877. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1932, 2022 and 1948.
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This entry incorporates text from “No Kum-sok” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.