No kum sok biography channel

DAYTONA BEACH — Sixty years ago, Lt. No Kum-Sok spent the night floating on a barge on a river, surrounded by other North Korean Air Force pilots happy to have survived the Korean War.

But Kum-Sok, who had flown more than 100 combat missions during the war, had one more to accomplish — defecting to the United States.

"I was very tense," said the 81-year-old Daytona Beach man, who changed his name to Kenneth Rowe once he arrived in this country.

His best chance to escape from North Korea — a slim one, he figured — was to fly his Russian-made MiG-15 fighter jet to a military airfield in South Korea.

"My chances of success were 20 percent, 80 percent I would be killed," he said.

Even with the odds against him, Rowe said he couldn't stomach living under communist rule.

For two months after the armistice on July 27, 1953, he waited for his chance and often dreamed of escaping to the U.S. — vivid dreams.

"I even dreamed of the Empire S