한국전쟁 이전 북한 공군 간부의 구성과 정치연합체제의 구축

Abstract

이 글은 새로 발굴한 노획문서를 토대로 북한 공군 간부의 역사적 실체를 해명하고자 하였다. 북한 비행사단은 창설 당시 3개 연대와 2개 기술대대로 편성되었다. 이 글은 노획문서를 통해 비행사단 간부 중 총 65명의 이름․경력․직책을 새롭게 확인하였다. 이들은 사단․연대의 지휘부와 추격기연대․습격기연대의 중대장 이상을 맡고 있던 지휘관들이다. 비행사단의 주요간부는 해방이후 정치질서를 주도한 북한정치세력과 이들이 육성해온 평양학원 졸업생이 맡고 있었다. 비행사단 지휘부는 조선의용군출신, 일본군출신, 고려인으로 구성되었다. 이들은 비행사단에서 각각 역할을 분담한 채 한반도의 무력통일이라는 공통의 목표 아래 정치연합체제를 구축하고 있었다. 비행사단은 의용군출신의 지휘와 고려인의 정치사상적 지도 아래 일본군출신에 의해 육성되었다. 추격기연대장․습격기연대장․교도연대장과 6명의 대대장은 모두 일본군출신이었다. 또한, 비행사단 연대간부는 노동자․빈농․사무원을 주축으로 구성되었다. 이것은 북조선로동당이 지향해온 계급정책의 결과였다. 그리고 노동당은 비행사단의 노동당원을 통해 사단에 대한 당적 통제와 영향력을 관철시켰다. 이같은 비행사단의 군적․계급․당원 구성은 주요간부를 맡고 있던 일본군출신의 정치적 동요를 차단하고 사상적 지지를 확보할 수 있는 내부적 동력이었다. Before the Korean War, some features of the officers in the Air Force of North Korea are as in the following: First, the flight division command was composed of superior people to the regiment in educational background and work experience aspects. The division command had carried out the core role in the process of the establishment of the Air Force. It was representative of the many political parties in the North Korea. In the division, the commander represented the Korean volunteer army group, the deputy commander did the people from the Japanese army, and the deputy division commander of the culture did the Korean of Soviet origin. However no one represented the anti-Japanese union army group. This was the biggest difference with the Army of North Korea. Second, two out of every three deputy regiment commanders of the culture were from the Pyongyang Academy. All the deputy regiment commanders of the culture held deputy Battalion commanders in the air regiment and probably were members of the Workers’ Party. One of the every chief of staff in the regiment was from the Pyongyang Academy. It seems that the every chief in the regiment worked as a chief of staff in the deputy Battalion. Third, most of the battalion commanders were from the Japanese army. Six out of nine commanders came from the Japanese army. They, also, were pilots. Two of them were founding members of the Sinuiju Flying Corps and one of them was a pilot of the Corps. Five of them were from the Pyongyang Academy and one of them was from the Central Politics Officer School. Six of them joined the air force in 1946. Two of them worked as instructors in the air regiment. Four of them were members of the Workers’ Party and two of them were non-party members. Origins of the regimental officers are as in the following. 42 percent of them were workers, 25 percent were officers, and 16 percent were poor peasants in a social classification aspect. 39.5 percent of them were poor peasants, 32.5 percent were workers, and 16 percent were officers in an ancestry aspect. 63 percent were higher than a middle school diploma. It shows that highly educated people were recruited to the air force as the regimental officers. 84 percent of the regimental officers were members of the Workers’ Party and 16 percent were non-party members.