100,000 Copies Of The Interview To Be Launched Into North Korea On Balloons

Photo via Wikipedia

Just when you thought the buzz about the infamous American comedy The Interview was dying down, activists have announced plans to launch 100,000 copies of it into North Korea, attached to the end of balloons. Activist Park Sang-hak says the balloons may begin launching as soon as late January and that each will be attached to a DVD or memory stick containing a copy of the film with Korean subtitles.

The film, starring Seth Rogan and James Franco, depicts a satirical assassination attempt on North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un. The movie recently became a source of tension between the United States and North Korea when hackers claimed it was the motivation behind the massive November information breech at Sony Pictures. The film also sparked controversy between Washington DC and Hollywood when President Obama remarked that he felt Sony’s initial plans to cancel the movie’s release where a “mistake.”

Park, himself a North Korean defector, says the planned balloon launch is an attempt to break down the idolization of the country’s dictator. “North Korea’s absolute leadership will crumble if the idolization of leader Kim breaks down,” Park recently told the Associated Press.

Park has partnered with a U.S. based nonprofit called the Human Rights Foundation, who have offered to finance the DVDs and memory sticks which will contain copies of the film. Park says that the balloons are not all scheduled to launch simultaneously but will be paced out over the next few months, with a peak in March when ideal wind patterns are expected.

According to their website, the Human Rights Foundation is an “organization that promotes and protects human rights globally, with a focus on closed societies.” The nonprofit recently launched a $250,000 Indiegogo Campaign called #HackThemBack, which aims to help defectors get movies, books, articles, and other literature from the outside world into North Korea. The nonprofit states on their campaign page, “The North Korean regime survives because it brainwashes its citizens, depriving them of the basic human rights that we take for granted. The dictatorship exerts complete control over the country, using violence, concentration camps, and public executions to punish those who dare to disagree.”

The Human Rights Foundation adds that the Interview balloon launch won’t be the first in their history, as they’ve been using balloons to get information out since 2009. They also said added that a 2013 balloon campaign resulted in death threats on several of their staff members by the North Korean government.

100,000 Copies Of The Interview To Be Launched Into North Korea On Balloons