North Korea Military Plan Cruel Deception is a story that once I had the full details of the aftermath several years later, quite frankly left me speechless and angry.
How To Survive 3 Years In North Korea As A Foreigner
In early 2004, I was contacted at the embassy in Pyongyang by David Hinton, the brother of an RAF pilot who had been shot down in 1952 over North Korea during the Korean war. He said he had been working for several years trying to garner as much information from a variety of primary sources as to the fate of his brother.
This information he now had in his possession. Most of the details of the shoot down were supplied by eyewitness United States Air Force (USAF) pilots including map coordinates of the site of the crash (which he later sent to me).
He then expressed a wish to be able to visit North Korea and hopefully, finally discover the fate of his brother. Could we help?
The background was that the pilot, Flt Lt Desmond Hinton, who received the Distinguished Flying Cross in World War II for shooting down two Japanese fighters had bailed out of his burning F84e Thunderjet whilst carrying out a strafing mission north east of Pyongyang on 2 January 1952. At this time during the Korean war, Flt Lt Hinton was one of a number of RAF pilots who were attached to and flying with the USAF. Despite enquiries after the war and with no further information as to his fate forthcoming, Flt Lt Hinton was subsequently officially listed as missing in action.
I knew that this was going to be a tall order to try and carry out. The Korean War itself was and still is a huge propaganda tool for the Kim dynasty. So requesting assistance in finding a hated enemy, albeit a fallen one, was perhaps a request too far.
But surprisingly, no.
Permission was granted for me to meet with the North Korean military and at the initial meeting, I provided them with all the research material sent to me by David Hinton and they said they would investigate.
The process of making this project happen, working with the North Korean military, I have covered in a previous post