As my last Best Korean piece was well received, I decided to do another fairly obscure Aircraft used by the North Koreans: The MD-500E
The 85 MD-500E Helicopters were illegally supplied by a West German Company ("Delta-Avia Fluggerate", an international distributor for Hughes) in 1985. Delivered in four separate loads, they travelled in Soviet Cargo Ships, via Antwerp, Rotterdam, and Hong Kong. At the time it was a considerable embarrassment to the Hughes Company which had a strong relationship with South Korea. No pictures of the aircraft emerged for more than 30 years, until July 27th 2013. On that day during the Parade Marking the Korean War Armistice, a number of the Helicopters performed a fly past, and were filmed doing so. These were the first actual pictures of the aircraft, and what I have based this on. They were modified: equipped with launchers for Malyutka ATGM's (locally produced in North Korea as the "Susong-Po").