Activist plans to airdrop copies of "The Interview" into North Korea

[jeliza]

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — 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.

"North Korea's absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down," Park said by telephone.

If carried out, the move was expected to enrage North Korea, which expressed anger 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 the 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. Owning a computer requires permission from the government and costs as much as three months' salary for the average worker, according to South Korean analysts.

Not everyone supports sending balloons into the North, with liberals and border town residents in South Korea urging the activists to stop. North Korea has long demanded that South Korea stop the activists, but Seoul refuses, citing freedom of speech.

Park said the ballooning will be done clandestinely, with the pace picking up in March when he expects the wind direction to become more favorable.

Calls to the Human Rights Foundation on Wednesday were not immediately answered. The foundation says on its website that it works with North Korean defectors to use hydrogen balloons to send material across the border, as well as smuggling items through China and broadcasting radio transmissions to reach those who own illegal short wave radios.

source: USA Today

This has the potential to be so amazingly awful. I wish they'd stick to pies.

Comments

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

I wish they'd stick to pies.

I said the same thing to my sister when we discussed this news piece yesterday. (We bond over BBC news articles...LOL)

Every time I see anything about this movie I start to get angry so I apologize ahead of time if I wind up ranting in this post. I've been trying to combat the movie by sharing NK documentaries from Youtube but I don't think it's doing much good. Today I saw a guy I know say it was the "best comedy he has seen in years" and I physically gagged.




*sigh* I need to go look at pictures of Gong Yoo to make myself chill out.

[iamtheliquorr.livejournal.com]

my dad watched it on youtube and went running into my room saying it was hilarious and I have to watch it and I told him I was disowning him

[seishin.livejournal.com]

Which NK documentaries? Can you share please? :)

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

I know how you feel. My sis keeps saying she wants to watch it & I'm like, 'HELL NO! NOT HERE FOR THIS AMERICAN PROPAGANDA"

[hongaerin.livejournal.com]

I would be really interested in these documentaries you are mentioning. Could you share the links please ?

[tokyocinema.livejournal.com]

This has the potential to be so amazingly awful.

Really couldn't have said it better myself.

[crack.livejournal.com]

lmao this movie is trash and this whole thing is dumb for soooo many reasons other than that.

and i read sending food isn't that much more effective

Food parcels were originally sent but then North Korean guards would intentionally poison the food parcels found and such so people are sending food wrappers and packaging such instead to show that this is the food you can get here and because things like “refunds” are very effective as many North Koreans don’t have that concept

[iznanassi.livejournal.com]

This is so dangerous and so blatantly US-centric that I'm appalled.

The movie is (supposedly) not even good, stop. What does showing a movie of some guy acting as KJU getting killed have to do with what he can actually do to these people. God.

[jaelissi.livejournal.com]

Assholes. Why are they calling them activists? Let's call an attentionwh*re an attentionwh*re please.

[undeniablysarah.livejournal.com]

But the movie is racist and stupid and shows nothing of what the world is actually like as it is a comedy with many american pop culture references and jokes most of the n.koreans will probably be offended by making them dislike America more.

Overall not a smart plan. Burn this movie to the ground.

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

i agree, if anything it makes ppl hate america for its blatant racism...NK is not stupid and that activist should know better...

[sra-interesante.livejournal.com]

I hope it doesn't work

[v-glace.livejournal.com]

this seems so stupid, and i hate how this movie's somehow become a thing through social media and pr from the hacking. one of my relatives was praising it the other day and i was like ?? ?

[broadway-bound3.livejournal.com]

I've never really feared North Korea while living in South Korea, but suddenly I have a fear of what might happen and living so close to the border.

[wildette.livejournal.com]

Slightly OT but relatively related: NK defector Yeonmi Park posted on her social network accounts about watching the interview, what are everyones thoughts?

[modernelegance.livejournal.com]

I am glad that she was able to practice her freedom to watch the movie. I am just curious as to what her thoughts were about the movie...and if there was genuine understanding of the (American) cultural jokes/gags. (Since those are normally not as easily understood by those whose second language is English.)

[burnbook31.livejournal.com]

how is this the best movie of all time? like looking at the poster i feel disgusted already.

[torontok.livejournal.com]

Are they going to send over latops as well?
This is so incredibly stupid

[dimsim.livejournal.com]

Regardless of what the movie is (I haven't seen it and heard this or that from different people), I think that sending it over the border and knowing that a lot of innocent people are going to get into trouble just for probably even picking up those copies of the movie is a really stupid/awful/thoughtless/bad/whatareyouevensmoking idea. Not really "helping". Hope it doesn't happen.

[yakuniku-8.livejournal.com]

+1

[lastbestwest.livejournal.com]

I'm a pretty big fan of Seth Rogen, he's from my hometown and seems like a cool, chill guy. Up until now I have enjoyed all his movies but let me say this: THE INTERVIEW WAS SHIT. Like I went into watching thinking it was going to be funny and was excited to hear some Korean references and because it was shot in Vancouver, but it was such a steaming piece of shit I wanted to leave the room. The jokes weren't funny, it was like the actors just totally gave up on acting, the Korean accents were so embarrassing, everything about it was terrible.

[fiercediva.livejournal.com]

I keep asking why Canada is getting a pass on this (shot in Vancouver, BC film tax credits, two Canadian screenwriters and a Canadian co-star, Canadian/Korean and Canadian/Chinese actors participating in their own degradation, Randall Park excepting) while everyone is denouncing it as American racism/bad taste/etc.

[obviousgirl.livejournal.com]

Aren't the people of North Korea suffering enough without being subjected to this shit?

[dreamer-easy.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on the movie as I haven't seen it, but the NK expat and activist mentioned in the article, Park Sang-Hak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Park_Sang-hak), must be doing something right, as apparently NK tried to have him assassinated. According to Wikipedia, his group, Fighters for a Free North Korea, have been sending human rights and pro-democracy literature via balloon for years.

It's possible the message Park wants to send is exactly what has annoyed many Westerners - that North Korea, and especially its dear leader, are seen as a bit of a joke by the rest of the world. We want people to take the horrors of NK more seriously, but perhaps FFNK want North Koreans to take Kim Jong-un less seriously.

(Having said which, I don't feel well-informed enough to hold an opinion about this plan. I'm not even sure I'm entitled to one, tbh. I'm sure Koreans themselves have different views about it.)

[hitsujiga.livejournal.com]

hm that's an interesting thought..while i think it could totally backfire and make NK ppl hate america even more..i do think it is possible that knowing/seeing this is a comedy about their leader...that maybe they also get another viewpoint. but i guess that could only be true for people who are not totally brainwashed and already feeling/knowing there is something wrong with their regime.

[mjspice.livejournal.com]

I can't believe how out of hand the promotion for this trashy & racist ass movie has gotten. Hell I won't even be surprised if the attack on Sony was just a promo to make this shit seem like a million dollars. If anything this is making the whole situation seems like they trying to goad NK into a war for no reason.

[fiercediva.livejournal.com]

Since the attack put SSN and health info of current and former SPE employees (some of whom are suing) out in the street as well as the e-mails and unreleased film leaks which may lead to formerly respected, C-level heads rolling at the company... I gotta believe no one would risk 20 year careers and 7-figure base salaries just to help box office receipts for one mid-budget Rogen/Franco "epic" that would have probably made a modest profit on its own.

[bomsnose.livejournal.com]

Sending the Interview is probably a bad idea, but I hope people will keep send all sorts of movies and music to North Korea. They have it much worse than anyone in Eastern Europe ever had it, but that only means they need more encouragement. (There used to be a black market for Western things behind the Iron Curtain, and people esp. near Western borders listened to Western radio in secret.)

[krissasaur]

I read your other comment, as well, and I think sending movies and music is very irresponsible. It is basically giving whoever picks it up a death sentence. It isn't giving the people an option to seek information, it's forcing something onto them that will get them killed. Some people may want this information, and be ready for it, but I am sure many people in North Korea would want nothing to do with it. The repercussions of us intervening in this way could lead to many North Koreans being executed whether they actually watched the movie or not.

I don't know if you watched Yeonmi Parks speech, but it was mentioned that she watched her friends mother get executed right in front of her. Reason? She was caught watching a Hollywood movie.

Shin Donghyuks story mentions how he turned in his Mother and brother to be executed, and that he didn't even realized what he had actually done until he was free. The idea of being rewarded was more important to him than anything else. He was still punished for turning them in, as well. This isn't directly related; Shin also lived in a camp with much harsher rules from what I have read, but his story shows that many of these people probably would not want to even bother attempting to watch it, yet still be punished for it nevertheless.

Sending over food and supplies is one thing, but sending things that will end up getting them executed is another. From everything I have read about North Korea, I wouldn't be shocked if they one day decided to execute those whose houses the movies landed near, whether as a statement, or just for the hell of it. It just seems ridiculously dangerous to me.

I do agree with you that the people need an outside influence, and to know more than one side of the story, but I don't think this is the way to do it. I don't have an answer on how, but as I said, this way feels very irresponsible to me.

[modestgoddess79.livejournal.com]

Wouldn't it be smarter to send them videos showing how awesome life in South Korea is in comparison to life in North Korea?