Cookie, Thanks so much for passing on this information. It is very interesting in that it suggests that the overall numbers of Korean veterans - 40,000 - 50,000 - believed by ROK and U.S. intelligence at the time to have transferred to the DPRK from abroad, were about right, but that as you point out, most were not from the PLA but from the Soviet Army. Of course, we have to assume some bias in the source. Regards, Don ----- Original Message ----- From: AMPSOne@aol.com Sent: Saturday, October 27, 2001 7:40 AM To: KOREAN-WAR-L@UKANS.EDU Subject: New Numbers on Ex-PLA Korean Troops I just spotted a new article by two Russian authors in the latest issue of NVO (Nezavisimoye Voyennoye Obozreniye - Independent Military
Observer) which declared that according to Soviet archives there were only around 14,000 Koreans who fought for the PLA during the Civil War and who returned to Korea prior to 1950.
The Soviets claimed "several divisions" of Koreans fought for them in the Far East, and if so, guess this would sort out who did the majority of the training of the KPAF.
BTW the Russians are still grousing that much of the archives for this period are still classified so the picture still isn't clear.
Cookie Sewell
AMPS
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