Military Merits Medal.

[claretbaron]

I find somebady love these, i find some PLA's in china. so put them on here.of cuase i want to study other country's somethin in korea war, just like medals, uniform ,etc.
because of my english is not good, so if somethine are mistake please tell me.
Handkerchief:
word on Handkerchief is :joined Korean War, defending the homeland;
chinease peoples Sympathy Mission Presented (i think this mybe not good by english,but i do my best.)

============================
defending the homeland: china goverment declare: usa and other joined korea want to Occupied korea and after this ,they will Occupied china. so they told peoples joined korea war just as defending the homeland.
================================
gift bag:
word from right to let: send to , Chinese People's Volunteers,chinease peoples Sympathy Mission Presented .


award:
one pla named: zhu yuling, in 1950-4-22~1950-6-10(yy-mm-day),
2 class .27Corps.
pla: Usually use: Special,1 class,2class ,3 class to thanks soldier good work in war.
27 corps: Jin Long Lake, New Village, win U.S. Army's 7th Infantry Division Detachment 31 Mission.

[EricFG]

Cool stuff, thanks for sharing.
I like the awards citation and the officer's belts. One can see the Soviet influence in both.

[CtahhR]

Here is a very early Military Merits Medal (군공메달) numbered 16383. By the mid 1950's over half a million of these medals had been awarded and they continue to be awarded in number to this day. However, numbering of DPRK awards was phased out award by award. This medal was one of the first to be phased out, well before the ceasefire in 1953. Currently the only two DPRK awards that continue to be numbered are the Order Of Kim Il-Sung (500+ awarded) and the Order Of Freedom And Independence 1st Class (c5000 awarded). This Medal is also from the US Marine group.

[CtahhR]

Not for around 25+ years. 3rd Class started being unnumbered after around 900,000 of them have been issued, 2nd Class after around 150,000-200,000 and I think the 1st Class was only numbered up to the end of 5 digits. There are LOTS of DPRK awards out there. At least a million numbered Orders and Medals.

Here is a guide to some of the variations in the Military Merits Medal. This medal is one of the most common of all DPRK awards so it is an easy first item to obtain when starting a DPRK collection. It is also a nice cheap item to start on. There are fakes out there but they are usually the very crudely made Chinese copper "flats" with the typical Chinese 4 sided suspension and Mandarin and not Korean characters on the reverse.

This first Medal is an early example showing rather crude production (Poor detail and misplaced hole) which is made of a copper heavy brass and does not show any signs of ever being a "Silver" medal but more of a "Bronze" colour, it is also numbered.

In the third picture I have highlighted some of the "tells" of this variation, other than the colour. In red is marked the hole is punched separate to the pattern, In green is the lack of a featured face and in Blue is the foot on the left of the Medal being horizontal to the foot on the right.