How this North Korean defector is using balloons to fight Kim Jong-un

Updated : Apr 28, 2022 17:47
|
AP

A South Korean activist claims he has launched a million propaganda leaflets attached to balloons towards North Korea this week.

It is his first campaign since his previous leafleting last year which initiated a government crackdown due to a new contentious law that criminalized such actions.

Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, has been was on trial over his previous leafleting campaign in April last year, which was the first known violation of the law that punishes anti-Pyongyang leafleting with up to three years in prison.

The law, which took effect a month earlier, has been a source of heated debate in South Korea amid criticism that it's sacrificing freedom of speech to improve ties with North Korea.

While undergoing a police investigation and a court trial, Park was forced to halt his leafleting activities for about a year but said he resumed his campaign this week.

He said his group floated a total of 20 huge balloons carrying the leaflets critical of North Korea's nuclear program and its ruling Kim family's hereditary power transfers across the tense Korean border on Monday and Tuesday.

Park said the balloons also contained the pictures of South Korea's incoming conservative president, Yoon Suk Yeol, to let the North Koreans learn the difference between the South's election system and the North's father-to-son successions.

He said small books and USB sticks, which carry the information about South Korea's economic and cultural development, were also put in the balloons.

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North KoreaKim Jong Un

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