Kenneth Hill Rowe, a North Korean pilot who defected in his Soviet MiG-15 aircraft across the Demilitarized Zone shortly after the Korean War, passed away last month at his home in Daytona, Florida.

Born No Kum Sok to a relatively affluent businessman in Sinhung County, South Hamgyong Province, in what was then known as Japanese-occupied Korea, Rowe’s life would prove to be one of contradiction. 

While as a child he dreamed of visiting America, he wanted Japan to win World War II and had no concept of Korea as an independent country. When he expressed a desire to become a