Remembering Kim Il Sung

This week was the thirtieth anniversary of the death of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea. But why should we remember Kim Il Sung? Wasn't he the one that started the Korean War? 

That's just the point. The Korean War, of 1950-53, was the first war in which jet aircraft were widely used. The following decade would see the manned space program with astronauts landing on the moon twice before the end of the decade. It turned out that being a military jet pilot is an ideal background for an astronaut, and most of the early astronauts had been pilots in the Korean War.

It is interesting how history turns out. The V2 rockets, used by the Nazis, could be considered as the first man-made objects to enter space and would provide the foundation for the space program. The war later begun by Kim Il Sung would provide the foundation for the astronauts that would ultimately land on the moon.