Korean People's Air Force

Korean People's Air Force

The Korean People's Army Air Force, (Korean: 조선인민군 공군, Hanja: 朝鮮人民軍 空軍), is the name of the unified aviation forces of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). The KPAF is the second-largest branch of the Korean People's Army with an estimated 110,000 personnel. It possesses between 1,600 and 1,700 aircraft of different types, mostly of Soviet and Chinese origin. Its primary task is to defend North Korean airspace. When the People's Army was formed up with Soviet help, the aviation unit became its air force branch on August 20, 1947. North Korea has celebrated August 20 as Air Force Foundation Day ever since.

Read more about Korean People's Air Force:  History, Personnel and Training, Structure, Aircraft Inventory, Air Defense, Capabilities, Defections

Famous quotes containing the words people, air and/or force:

    To people off alone, as we were, there is something stirring about finding evidences of human labour and care in the soil of an empty country. It comes to you as a sort of message, makes you feel differently about the ground you walk over every day.
    Willa Cather (1873–1947)

    Oh none too soon through the air white and dry
    Will the clear announcer’s voice
    Beat like a dove, and you and I

    From the heart’s anarch and responsible town
    Return by subway-mouth to life again,
    Bearing the morning papers,
    Richard Wilbur (b. 1921)

    A petty bureaucrat always watches his superior’s countenance, just as a boatman trims his sails according to the force of the wind.
    Chinese proverb.