Tag: balloons

This just shows that North Korea’s threats work and that is why they continue to make them:

A defector-turned-activist said Monday he will halt his campaign of sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda via balloons over the demilitarized zone into North Korea after it caused escalating military tension at the inter-Korean border.

“I can see the North’s fear of the leaflets,” said Park Sang-hak, founder of the rights group Fighters for a Free North Korea. “We won’t send the leaflets for some time.”

Earlier this month, the group said it would send leaflets carrying messages critical of the Kim Jong-un regime and 5,000 DVDs of the Hollywood comedy “The Interview,” which depicted an assassination of the young ruler, over the border by balloons sometime around Thursday. Thursday is the fifth anniversary of the North’s sinking of the South Korean warship Cheonan, although Pyongyang has denied responsibility.

Park demanded Monday that the North apologize for sinking the Cheonan, and if it doesn’t, his group will eventually dispatch the leaflets and DVDs.

Tension between the two Koreas’ militaries reached a new peak over the weekend as a result of Park’s plan. On Sunday, the North threatened to use “all the firepower means” to destroy the balloons. The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency released a warning from frontline units of its military.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I am sure Park Sang-hak was under a lot of pressure from the South Korean government to suspend the balloon launches due to the talks over the Kaesong Industrial Complex they are trying to have with the North Koreans.

It seems that North Korea is very serious about stopping the Fighters for A Free North Korea from releasing balloons with copies of “The Interview” on it:

North Korea on Sunday renewed its threats against a South Korean civic group’s plan to send anti-Pyongyang fliers across the border via balloon, warning it will use “all the firepower strike means” to destroy them.

The message, posted as an open notice by the frontline units of the North’s Korean People’s Army (KPA), came about a week after a leading activist in Seoul reaffirmed his intent to scatter materials criticizing the communist regime across the border around March 26.

The date marks the 5th anniversary of Pyongyang’s torpedoing of the South Korean corvette Cheonan.

Park Sang-hak, head of the activist group, said earlier this month he and other North Korean defectors would release balloons holding 500,000 leaflets, as well as DVDs of the U.S. film “The Interview,” a comedy depicting a fictitious assassination of the North’s leader Kim Jong-un.

According to the North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the KPA’s open notice said the campaign “deliberately (escalates) tension on the Korean peninsula where the situation has reached the brink of war” on top of the annual Seoul-Washington military drills that kicked off March 2.

Should the campaign be carried out, the North’s frontline army will “blow up” the balloons with “all the firepower strike means,” it said, adding that any countermeasures will “entail double and treble merciless retaliatory strikes.”

In October the two Koreas exchanged gunfire after the North attempted to shoot down balloons carrying similar leaflets. South Korea suffered no casualties or property damage.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but the group should just secretly fly the balloons across the border so the North Koreans do not have a chance to retaliate against them if they are dead set on doing this.

The Interview: South Korea bans balloon drop of DVDs into North http://t.co/tPhGDM01oF

— South Korea Daily (@SouthKoreaDaily) March 20, 2015

I can understand the ROK government’s viewpoint on this, but if the activists do not get media attention for their activities then they will have a hard time receiving support to sustain their operations:

South Korea expressed concern Tuesday over civic groups’ plans to publicly send leaflets to North Korea, indicating that it will try to block them.

Days ago, a group of civic groups announced their plan to send anti-Pyongyang leaflets to North Korea on March 26, the fifth anniversary of the North’s torpedoing of a South Korean Navy ship in March 2010.

Civic groups involved in the leaflet campaign have often pre-announced their campaigns so their activities could draw media and social attention. Such campaigns intended to spread dissenting messages, however, often lead to wild indignation and military reaction from Pyongyang.

“Believing that spreading leaflets publicly is not right, the government has been urging prudent and wise decisions (from civic groups),” a unification ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity. “I think there needs to be expression of such a government stance through whatever means, including person-to-person contact.”

Still, scattering leaflets basically falls in the sphere of a constitutionally given right to free expression, which the government cannot regulate with force, the official said.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Activist Park Sang-hak is at it again, but he has decided to not send copies of the movie “The Interview” to North Korea if they decide to agree to talks with South Korea:

A group of local and foreign activists has sent balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border, but DVDs of the controversial film “The Interview” have been excluded, the group’s head said Tuesday.

“As previously announced in November, (we) scattered 100,000 anti-North Korean leaflets near (the border town) of Paju last night,” Park Sang-hak, the head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, told Yonhap News Agency. “The DVDs of ‘The Interview’ were not included on purpose.”

About 20 American activists, including some from the U.S.-based Human Rights Foundation, also joined the border campaign, according to officials.

Claiming the exclusion of the DVDs as a warning to North Korea, Park said the group will spread a massive amount of “The Interview” DVDs if the North is not cooperative with South Korea’s dialogue offer and its proposal for a reunion of separated families.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

This isn’t the first or will be the last of the assassination threats that North Korea has made against balloon activist Park Sang-hak:

North Korea issued a death threat against a defector-turned-activist after he announced a plan to send copies of a satirical Hollywood film about a plot to kill Kim Jong-un into North Korea.

The South Korean government said Thursday it will take necessary measures to protect its citizens.

Last week, Park Sang-hak, who heads the Fighters for a Free North Korea, said he planned to send 100,000 DVDs and USB memory sticks containing the movie “The Interview” via balloons across the border into North Korea to destroy the personality cult build around Kim Jong-un.

He said the Sony Pictures’ movie will have Korean subtitles and he will start sending the balloons as early as late January.

According to the Ministry of Unification, the North aired an ultimatum against Park on Wednesday. Using extremely cruel language, the North’s Pyongyang Broadcasting Station said Park must “go to hell.”

It promised to “bleed him out and gut his intestines.”

“In order to end this tragic reality of national division forced upon our people and homeland by outside forces, we must ruthlessly eliminate those maniacs who encourage inter-Korean confrontations,” the broadcast said. “And the Korean people select Park as the first target.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but hopefully Park Sang-hak has taken the appropriate security measures to protect himself from North Korean assassins.  Back in 2011 a North Korean assassin was arrested before he could carry out his plot to kill Park with poison needles.

It appears that some in the Korean government want to pull a Sony and give in to North Korean threats at the expense of free speech for their citizens:

A South Korean parliamentary committee adopted a resolution Thursday calling on the government to take necessary steps to protect its citizens from any harm caused by civic activists’ flying of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border.

The resolution, adopted by the National Assembly’s foreign affairs and unification committee, also urges the two Koreas to abide by their earlier agreements to stop all slander against each other, noting it is key to building trust.

“(We) urge the government to take necessary steps so as to ensure the spread of anti-North Korea leaflets does not damage the improvement of South-North ties and jeopardize the safety of our citizens,” the resolution said.

The leaflet campaign, often led by North Korean defectors in the South, has long been a source of tension between the two Koreas as it aims to stir up dissent against the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Seoul has long dismissed Pyongyang’s demands to ban the campaign, citing freedom of speech.

Speaking during the committee meeting, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae stressed that the government’s position remains unchanged. The government also believes it should take steps if they are needed for the people’s safety, he said.

The minister, however, ruled out a direct link between the leaflet scattering and any improvement in bilateral ties.

The government’s stance has been closely watched after the district court in Uijeongbu, just north of Seoul, ruled Tuesday that it is legal for authorities to restrain the campaign if it puts the lives of South Koreans at risk.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak is living up to his word and has decided to drop “The Interview” over North Korea via balloon:

A South Korean activist said Wednesday that he will launch balloons carrying DVDs of Sony’s “The Interview” toward North Korea to try to break down a personality cult built around dictator Kim Jong Un.

The comedy depicting an assassination attempt on Kim is at the center of tension between North Korea and the U.S., with Washington blaming Pyongyang for crippling hacking attacks on Sony Entertainment. Pyongyang denies that and has vowed to retaliate.

Activist Park Sang-hak said he will start dropping 100,000 DVDs and USBs with the movie by balloon in North Korea as early as late January. Park, a North Korean defector, said he’s partnering with the U.S.-based non-profit Human Rights Foundation, which is financing the making of the DVDs and USB memory sticks of the movie with Korean subtitles.

Park said foundation officials plan to visit South Korea around Jan. 20 to hand over the DVDs and USBs, and that he and the officials will then try to float the first batch of the balloons if weather conditions allow.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but I guess we will see if North Korea tries to send out their leftist allies in South Korea to try and stop this balloon launch later in the month.

A ROK Drop favorite Park Sang-hak and his activist allies plan on dropping copies of the now cancelled Hollywood movie “The Interview” over North Korea if they can get a copy of the film:

Human Rights Foundation founder Thor Halvorssen says the group plans on buying copies of “The Interview” — which depicts the assassination of North Korea’s leader — and including them in upcoming balloon drops over North Korea. The group is waiting to hear whether Sony will release the movie in an alternate format since it canceled plans to release the film in theaters. (On Wednesday, Sony said it had no further plans for release.)

For the last two years, the Human Rights Foundation has been working with groups in South Korea to drop balloons into the North that are filled with banned items.

HRF has teamed up with Park Sang Hak, who worked for the North Korean government before defecting to South Korea. He is now the chairman of an activist group, Fighters for a Free North Korea, and has successfully led multiple balloon launches into North Korea.

Park told CNNMoney it’s a wider effort to help North Koreans gain access to different perspectives. And that perspective may soon include the controversial film that North Korea has condemned.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link, but this is another possible response to the Sony hack which would be to help fund defector groups to get subversive media into North Korea.

Defectors attack North Korea with helium balloons http://t.co/QYs6gea9sz pic.twitter.com/EzG74N5o8o

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 16, 2014