S. Korea activists delay airlift
Balloons bearing ‘The Interview’ were to be launched to North
SEOUL — South Korean activists have decided that the time is not yet right to attempt to fly balloons into North Korea carrying copies of “The Interview,” the Sony Pictures comedy that depicts an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Fighters for a Free North Korea, the group planning the airlift, told Voice of America on Monday that it would postpone, by at least a few days, the launch that had been planned for Thursday. The comedy starring James Franco and Seth Rogen centers on an American TV journalist traveling to North Korea to interview the leader, with secret CIA orders to take him out.
The launch had been set for the fifth anniversary of the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean warship, in waters near North Korea. A South Korean investigation found that a torpedo from North Korea sank the vessel, killing 46 people. North Korea has repeatedly denied involvement.
The balloon launch was meant in part to protest the Pyongyang government’s refusal to apologize for the sinking. But activists were putting it off in the hope that North Korea would apologize, group leader Park Sang-hak told VOA. Park did not immediately return requests Monday to confirm his comments.
In a telephone interview last week with the Los Angeles Times, Park said he wanted North Koreans to watch “The Interview” so they could see the country’s rulers, who are glorified in state-controlled films and television, in a different light.
“I was sorry that North Koreans wouldn’t be able to see [the film], so I wanted to find a way of showing it to them,” Park said.
Park fled the North in 1999 and now lives in South Korea, where he devotes his time to sending information to North Korea using USB sticks, DVDs and pamphlets. He describes his work as a campaign to undermine the Pyongyang government’s tight control on information.
Park is regularly the target of vitriol from North Korea’s official propaganda organs, which have called him “human scum” and threatened to “physically eliminate” him.
On Sunday, North Korea issued a statement saying that it would use “all the firepower strike means” of its forces in the area to shoot down the balloons, which it called the “gravest politically motivated provocation” and “a de facto declaration of a war.”
Park’s efforts have also made him unpopular among South Koreans. In October, North Korea used machine guns to fire on some balloons his group launched. Shells landed on the South Korean side, but no casualties were reported.
South Korean residents of the area have held protests when the launches take place, arguing that the balloons pose a threat to their safety. Groups on the left of South Korea’s political spectrum also oppose the launches, saying that they only antagonize North Korea and make rapprochement more difficult.
The administration of South Korean President Park Geun-hye has mostly stayed out of the debate, maintaining that the launches are a private exercise of freedom of speech.