Awards to foreigners

[Bob]

I tend to like awards to foreigners and have posted two:
- National Flag (2nd class off top of my head) awarded to a Russian
- Nataional Flag (1st class) as part of large group to Mongolian General

Also have one coming, a medal awarded to an East German with some interesting supporting documentation.

Question, i've been seeing an interesting item on a rather well known online auction site. The text says:

"A very scarce set:

The North Korean Medal of Military Merit, awarded to one of the Chinese "volunteers" who had fought in the Korean \War.

The award was made in 1955. The medal is contained within its original, early presentation box, made of wood with the DPRK seal incised on the lid.

The medal comes with the "deluxe" North Korean award document, in red cover, as well as the corresponding Chinese award document.

A truly splendid and rare set."

What do the experts (one in particular) think of this?

[CtahhR]

I like it... I like it a lot.... The price however isn't as preferable.... I have considered making an offer on it but it has been on offer for around a year now and isn't going anywhere fast. Take in mind that around 1/2 million of these Medals were awarded to the Chinese for their "Volunteer" participation in the combative period of the Korean War.

[CtahhR]

I would like to add though that if that award was numbered with a matching document I would have snapped it up straight away. So far I have only seen 3 numbered DPRK Medals and two of them are in my collection and displayed on the forum (I think they cost me $2-3 each delivered) and the third was on our favourite auction site and sold for a 2 digit amount. I would estimate around 14000-15000 numbered Medals "For Military Merit" existed at one point or another. The numbers will be less than that now due to loss during combat.

[Bob]

And here we have a well documented Labor Merit medal awarded to Rolf Funke from Dresden.

First, the dark blue / black booklet. 17-12-1953 is when it was awarded. The document also indicates Funke was born in 1922 and is a teacher in Dresden.

Perhaps more details on right hand side in Korean?

[Bob]

More from the inside of the document

Next, the really interesting stuff

[CtahhR]

If you could provide me with scans of the text I can try and give you a translation next week when I return to a full korean text supported system.

[Bob]

First up, Funke received an invite (I think it is a photocopy in my hands) to come to Berlin on May 29 1954 for an award ceremony in light of efforts in the solidaryity for Korea as member of the German National Front.

The invite is from the secretariat of the Dresden section of "National Front - des Demokratischen Deutschland, Landesausschuss Sachsen".

Interesting is the details it provides about a bus which has been organised to drive from Dresden to Berlin (presumably more people were getting awards?).

[Bob]

Next up, the additional letter on embossed paper declaring that Funke received the award. The letter indicates (in German) that the Supreme People's Assembly (perhaps wrongly translated by me) of the DPRK decided to award the medal for merit related to solidarity / help for the Korean people.

It is signed by Pak Kil Jon, "Ambassador of DPRK to DDR"

More on him later!

[Bob]

Finally then here the 3rd document - also in German, only the award booklet is in Korean with the exception of some personal details on Funke in German in it - from the "Korea-Help Committee with the National Council of the National Front of the GDR".

It is a long letter from Max Nierich (president of the committee) addressed to Funke (but perhaps a form letter with only his name customized on top) where he congratulates Funke with receiving the award on 29-5-1954 (date in line with the doc with the bus details, but different from the date in the award booklet - so perhaps that date was the date of the decree instead). Then a bunch of text about the help of Funke assisting Korea in their struggle against the american aggressors etc etc

Then text indicating how important it is to actually wear the award and how the award should be worn.

[Bob]

Now, apparently this Pak Kil Jon person is not just some bureaucrat... if I'm not mistaken, he survived the purges of the late '70s (as per the auction description)... and is now DPRK's representative at the UN?

The Korea-Hilfsausshuss was apparently an initiative to collect funds in GDR and then buy supplies to ship to DPRK during the Korean conflict.