The article “Military Postal Correspondence: Korean War, Korean Army Mail to the Soviet Union” by Peter Corson shows a series of North Korean military covers from a philatelic exhibit. But what were these covers about? And what message was sent through such a cover?
Here is one example complete with the letter originally sent still in the cover. After making some quick translation of the text I asked James Grayson, who lived for several decades in (South) Korea and was Professor of Modern Korean Studies at The University of Sheffield, to check my translation. The translation shown below is the version of the translation as edited by James.
Let’s have a look at the materials. First the cover, front and back:
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Korean soldiers were asked to write something to Soviet people or Chinese Chairman Mao, just like schoolboys’ homework only. These covers and cards were not really sent to Russia or China. that also explained why these covers and cards looked very new and fresh. The actual production date, during or after the war, was unknown.
Only very few covers were really passed postal route and sent to Russia, if with genuine postmarks.
Real locally used military cards did exist, they were communication between different military groups, receiver was always another soldier in another military group. Most of these cards were in bad condition, may coming from war causalities.