North Korea’s Leader Kim Jong Un meets female fighter pilots (and their venerable Mig-15 jets)

Published on: November 28, 2014 at 10:27 PM

North Korean Leader poses next to a takes shots of Mig female fighter pilots.

An always smiling Kim Jong Un visited a North Korean airstrip where he met, congratulated and took pictures of the first two female fighter pilots posing in front of their jets.

โ€œI am very satisfied and pleased to see the emergence of excellent female pilots and their brave flight in a matter of just a few months after I gave orders to train them,โ€ North Koreaโ€™s Supreme Leader said according to the state agency KCNA.

North Koreaโ€™s Air Force inducted the first unit for women in 1993 but until today, pilots were not qualified for fighter jets.

Indeed, the firstย Korean Peopleโ€™s Army Air Forceโ€™s female pilots must be brave to fly the obsolete Soviet-era Migs with flight gear which looks like the one used in the โ€™60s or โ€™70s.

Although when and where the images were taken was not unveiled, the airfield may be Sunan International Airport in Pyongyang.

Last week, the U.S. Air Force announced F-22 Raptor multi-role stealth jets were deployed to Japan as deterrence to North Korea. For sure, Mig-15s would not pose any threat to 5th Generation (or previous generations) U.S. combat planes.

Kim visit

Image credit: Yonhap News

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of โ€œThe Aviationistโ€, one of the worldโ€™s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
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