Posted on 01/18/2017 3:16:40 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
When North Korean students joined the 1956 Hungarian Revolution
Benjamin R. Young
January 5th, 2017
A recently published book From North Korea to Budapest: North Korean Students in the Hungarian Revolution in 1956″ looks at the role of North Korean students in the 1956 anti-Soviet revolution in Hungary.
Using Hungarian archival sources and oral history interviews, Professor Mózes Csoma of Eötvös Loránd University investigated the assistance given by North Korean students to their Hungarian classmates who went out on the streets to fight against Soviet troops.
These North Korean students, many of whom had military experience from the Korean War, taught their Hungarian friends how to use machine guns and mortars against the Soviet invaders.
This exciting new book offers readers a chance to look at the rebellious side of North Koreans: rarely seen by the outside world. Rather than being docile, disciplined defenders of Soviet-led international communism, North Korean students in Hungary actively participated in the 1956 Revolution and supported their Hungarian brothers and sisters in battle.
NK News caught up with the author to get more details on the North Korean students attitudes towards the 1956 Revolution and the backlash from Pyongyang after the failed anti-Soviet revolution.
NK News: Some of your interviews must have been extremely hard to get. For example, you interviewed Hungarians who fought alongside North Koreans during the Revolution. Were you able to interview any North Korean officials or former students during your research?
Mózes Csoma: When I started researching this topic in 2011, my first goal was to find eyewitnesses who had personal relations with North Korean students in the 1950s.
(Excerpt) Read more at nknews.org ...
P!
Well, thank them for their service.
Interesting story. I somehow doubt that the North Korean government is going to trumpet any North Korean individual involvement in overthrowing a dictatorial regime.
The lucky ones made it to Austria, I can only imagine that the rest of the NK students were under suspicion in NK for the rest of their lives.
As you said, these students, after their return, were put on a watch list due to their exposure to "suspicious influence." They are banished from Pyongyang, assigned to jobs which were way below their skill or talent.
N. Koreans were traditionally tough and hardy. The Fat Kim Family turned them into powerless malnourished midget slaves.
Koreans are an angry people.
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