N. Korea to Get 100K Copies of The Interview—by Balloon

Activist plans to drop DVDs, USBs with controversial movie
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 31, 2014 8:49 AM CST
N. Korea to Get 100K Copies of The Interview —by Balloon
In this Monday, Dec. 22, 2014, file photo, people walk past a TV screen showing a poster of Sony Picture's "The Interview" in a news report, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea.   (Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean activist said today that he will launch balloons carrying DVDs of The Interview toward North Korea to try to break down a personality cult built around dictator Kim Jong Un. Activist Park Sang-hak said he will start dropping 100,000 DVDs and USBs with the movie as early as late January. Park, a North Korean defector, said he's partnering with the US-based nonprofit 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.

"North Korea's absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down," Park said by telephone. The move was expected to further enrage North Korea, which was already pretty angry over the movie. In October, the country opened fire at giant balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets floated across the border by South Korean activists, triggering an exchange of gunfire with South Korean troops. But it is not clear how effective Park's plan will be, as only a small number of ordinary North Korean citizens are believed to own computers or DVD players. Many North Koreans would not probably risk watching the movie as they know they would get into trouble if caught. (More North Korea stories.)

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