A non-fiction thriller by international bestselling author Blaine Harden (Escape from Camp 14) that explores the world`s most repressive state through the intertwined lives of two North Koreans, one infamous, one obscure: Kim Il Sung, the former North Korean leader & No Kum Sok, once the state`s youngest jet fighter pilot. Shortly before the Korean War ended, No Kum Sok met Kim Il Sung, who congratulated him for his flying skill & his courage. A few months later, No Kum Sok stole a Soviet-made Mi G-15 & flew it to a US airfield in South Korea. Beginning with the arbitrary division of Korea in 1945 & ending two months after the shaky armistice that halted combat in the Korean War, The Great Leader & the Fighter Pilot is an ambitious & gripping book which digs deeply into the character of the Kim family dictatorship. At once an irresistible adventure story & an authoritative guide to the notorious state, it explains why North Korea remains so isolated, why it created & maintains a vast gulag of concentration camps, & why it is still so angry at the western world.