I don’t believe the story of Yang Kyoungjong. There’s no primary source for any of the information and it just seems like sources are just repeating what other sources have already said. The only supposed evidence of Yang Kyoungjong is a photograph
and testimony by a lieutenant interviewed by Stephen Ambrose in 1994 for his book "D-Day The 6th of June" and the lieutenant stating four Korean men were captured at Normandy and it. There aren’t any more sources! Ambrose didn’t question the testimony which he should have.
In the early 2000 from what I gather someone found the above picture and somewhere along the way the story was created no doubt inspired by what Ambrose had written.
The soldier in the photograph didn’t even have a name till 2005 from a poster on Axis History Forum who later stated the information he gave had not been confirmed. Then Antony Beevor published his book “The Second World War” in 2012 and mentioned Yang Kyoungjong in the opening of the book with the picture above without any source! A major blunder for a well known author.
Other books that mention him don’t cite a primary source for the story. Every book, TV show, website, YouTube video etc doesn’t cite a primary source. It is just a myth that has grown over time due to one picture and testimony by one man that was not questioned by Ambrose. It’s said he moved to the U.S. after the war to Illinois and died sometime in 1992 and nobody has been able to prove that actually happened. Ambrose was the one that stated he died in Illinois in 1992 again without any proof.
After a little more digging and translating a few Korean websites the story is regarded as false in South Korea. There is no record of him in Korea, from his time with the Japanese, Russians or Germans. Not to mention because he had been conscripted into the Soviet military he would have been forcefully repatriated back to the Soviets due the agreement the Western Allies had to keep Stalin happy during the war. He would not have ended up in Illinois instead a gulag if he was lucky as he would have been regarded as a traitor for joining the Germans.
Nobody has bothered to question it since Beevor wrote about him it seems and took what he stated as fact even without any source in the book he wrote. The myth has just grown more with websites and YouTube videos looking for easy ad revenue and just repeating what has already been said without checking the sources and the general viewership believing they have learned an interesting fact about WWII when it’s made up.
The more interesting story would be to figure out who this soldier actually is. Has been rathe interesting researching nonetheless.