Every war the Korean People’s Army Air Force has fought
The Korean War ended with the armistice of 27 July 1953, not a peace treaty. The jet war that followed the air force’s destruction in 1950 was fought mostly by Soviet and Chinese units, and the claims from it, like the two sides’ accounts of the EC-121 shoot-down of 1969, are attributed to the side that makes them. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the invasion of the South in 1950 to drones over the border in 2022.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| The Korean Warthe Fatherland Liberation War, in North Korean usageKorean People’s Army Air Force | 1950–1953 | United States, South Korea and United Nations Command | Yak-9, Il-10, MiG-15 | |||
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Supported the invasion of the South with piston aircraft, was destroyed by August 1950, then rebuilt on MiG-15s under a joint command with Chinese and Soviet air units. The air force opened the war on 25 June 1950 with Soviet-supplied Yak-9 fighters and Il-10 attack aircraft flown by pilots whom Soviet advisers had rated largely unready. Once US and UN air power arrived it was destroyed in the air and on the ground within weeks; Wikipedia, citing Douglas Dildy, credits it with only three US aircraft shot down in air combat — a B-29, an L-4 and an L-5. From 1 November 1950 the Soviet 64th Fighter Aviation Corps flew MiG-15s from Manchuria, secretly, and from 1951 within a United Air Army with the Chinese air force; North Korean MiG-15 units trained and flew within the same system. The jet battles over north-west Korea became known as MiG Alley. Two months after the armistice a North Korean pilot, No Kum-sok, delivered an intact MiG-15 to the United States by defecting to Kimpo. Outcome Armistice of 27 July 1953; no peace treaty has been signed. Kill and loss claims from the Korean War air war are contested on every side; all figures here are attributed to the side or historian that made them. Much of the North Korean detail comes from Wikipedia’s reading of Dildy (Air Power History, 2012) and was not checked against the original.
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| The Vietnam WarNorth Korean pilots in North VietnamKorean People’s Army Air Force | 1966–1969 | United States | MiG-17, MiG-21 | |||
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Sent fighter pilots and ground crew to fly North Vietnamese MiG-17s and MiG-21s under the Vietnamese Air Defence-Air Force Command. On 21 September 1966 General Vo Nguyen Giap approved Pyongyang’s request to send pilots, and the two sides agreed the details later that month. From late 1966 through 1967 North Korea deployed three flight companies — two with MiG-17s and one with MiG-21s — subordinate to a Vietnamese regiment. The historian Merle Pribbenow, writing for the Wilson Center from Vietnamese sources, counts 87 North Korean air force personnel serving between 1967 and early 1969; Wikipedia gives 87 to 96 pilots. Outcome Withdrawn by early 1969. Claims of 26 US aircraft are North Korean claims reported in Vietnamese sources; the number of North Koreans who served varies by source (87–96).
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| The EC-121 shoot-downDeep Sea 129Korean People’s Army Air Force | 1969 | United States | MiG-21 | 2 | 0 | |
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Two MiG-21s intercepted a US Navy EC-121M signals-intelligence aircraft and one shot it down with air-to-air missiles. On 15 April 1969 a US Navy EC-121M of squadron VQ-1, call sign Deep Sea 129, was shot down over the Sea of Japan. The US Navy’s Naval History and Heritage Command puts it about 80 nautical miles off the North Korean coast (Wikipedia says 90), and says it was hit by AA-2 Atoll infrared missiles. North Korea announced that it had downed an aircraft "intruding deep" into its airspace and called it a brilliant achievement; the United States said the aircraft was in international airspace under orders to stay at least 50 nautical miles offshore. President Nixon sent Task Force 71, built around the carrier Enterprise, into the Sea of Japan and ordered the flights resumed. Outcome No US military retaliation beyond a naval show of force and the resumption of reconnaissance flights within a week. The distance from the coast differs between accounts (about 80 or 90 nautical miles); North Korea’s airspace claim is its own position.
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| The Yom Kippur War and afterNorth Korean MiG-21s in EgyptKorean People’s Army Air Force | 1973 | Israel | MiG-21 | |||
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A North Korean MiG-21 unit based at Bir Arida defended southern Egypt. North Korea sent a MiG-21 squadron to Egypt in 1973 and based it at Bir Arida to protect the south of the country. Israeli pilots did not know they had fought North Koreans until after the war. The date of the best-known clash, in which Israeli F-4 Phantoms engaged two North Korean MiG-21s over the Gulf of Suez, is given differently: The Aviationist writes 6 October 1973, while Wikipedia places the last air combat on the Egyptian front, involving North Korean-piloted MiG-21s, on 6 December 1973. Outcome Withdrawn after the war. Dates and outcomes rest on Israeli accounts retold by The Aviationist and Wikipedia; there is no North Korean or Egyptian official record in the sources checked.
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| Drone incursions over South Koreathe December 2022 drone incursionNorth Korea | 2022 | South Korea | Small reconnaissance drones | 5 | ||
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Five North Korean drones crossed the border on 26 December 2022; one entered the northern edge of the no-fly zone around the South Korean president’s office. It was the first such intrusion in five years. South Korea scrambled fighters, light attack aircraft and attack helicopters, which fired about 100 warning rounds, without bringing any drone down. In October 2024 the roles were reversed: North Korea’s Foreign Ministry said South Korean drones had dropped leaflets over Pyongyang on 3, 9 and 10 October; South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the claim. Outcome South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff first denied, then admitted, the entry into the P-73 zone and speeded up counter-drone programmes. Which North Korean organisation flies these drones is not published; they are listed here because they are the North’s only recent air operations over the South. No North Korean statement on the 2022 flights was found in the sources checked.
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- Naval History and Heritage Command: H-Gram 029-2, EC-121 shoot-downUS Navy account: MiG-21s, AA-2 Atoll, about 80 nm offshore, Task Force 71.
- Wilson Center: Merle Pribbenow, North Korean Pilots in the Skies over Vietnam (1 December 2011)Giap’s approval 21 September 1966; 87 personnel; 26 claims; 14 killed; repatriation 2002.
- The Aviationist: An unknown story from the Yom Kippur war (24 June 2013)North Korean MiG-21s at Bir Arida; clash with Israeli F-4s; one MiG lost to an Egyptian SAM.
- The War Zone: Thomas Newdick, North Korean Drone Entered No-Fly Zone Over President’s Office In Seoul (5 January 2023)26 December 2022 incursion by five drones.
- The War Zone: Thomas Newdick, Drones Penetrate North Korean Air Defenses To Drop Propaganda Leaflets On Pyongyang (11 October 2024)North Korean claim and South Korean JCS response.
Figures verified 2026-09-30. Back to the Korean People’s Army Air Force.