SANTA ANA, Calif. - Come summer, when the southwest winds blowacross the Yellow Sea, helium balloons could soar high above theartillery and barbed wire that divide North and South Korea.
The balloons would carry radios, delivering news, music andreligion to North Korea, where the only permitted broadcasts arepropaganda of one of the world's most repressive regimes.
"North Koreans are like people without an ear," said the Rev.Douglas Shin, 48, a pastor from Artesia, Calif., whose fancifulvision is to liberate the land often called the "Hermit Kingdom" withfleets of balloon-borne radios. "I want to give them their earsback."
U.S. and North Korean diplomats met in Beijing recently to discussNorth Korea's nuclear program. The talks did not touch on humanrights in North Korea, where people have been executed for attemptingto defect or listen to foreign radio broadcasts, according to theState Department.
Shin has spent years trying to help oppressed people in NorthKorea, a land his father fled during the Korean War. He was arrestedtwice in Mongolia in 2000 for smuggling North Korean refugees intothe country. In 2001, he assisted refugees seeking asylum in foreignembassies inside China. In January, he helped organize a flotilla ofNorth Korean boat people who were captured by Chinese authorities atsea. Now, Shin wants to help North Koreans by breaking theirinformation blockade.
"We aren't talking about invading," he said. "We are talking aboutgiving them freedom of choice."
Shin said he needs a few thousand dollars to launch the firstballoons. So far, his Korean Peninsula Peace Project has received atrickle of donations - under $100 apiece - and fielded inquiries frompeople as far away as Japan and France. Ultimately, Shin hopes to getU.S. government financing.
Rep. Ed Royce, R-Calif., a key congressional sponsor of thegovernment's Radio Free Asia broadcasts to North Korea, said Shin'splan sounds intriguing.
"There's a demand for radios [in North Korea] and one idea is toflood the market there, so the government can't control what peopleare hearing," said Royce, who visited South Korea last week. "I thinkinformation is one of the keys to helping people there."
Shin plans to launch helium balloons from South Korea or shipsoffshore. A small pinprick would let the gas seep out slowly so theballoons touch down softly. If he raises enough money, Shin wouldlike to buy a remote-controlled aerial drone that could drop theradios by parachute over a designated spot rather than relying on thewind.
For decades, both North and South Korea used balloons to floatpropaganda leaflets across the DMZ. This summer, the Voice of theMartyrs, a U.S.-based Christian missionary organization, plans torelease 50,000 balloons packed with prayer tracts and Bibles to NorthKorea.
"We have had numerous reports of the success of this program,including one underground church that hung a scripture balloon in therafters of their building," said Todd Nettleton, a spokesman for theOklahoma-based group.
With his radios, Shin plans to include prayer tracts and a 500-won North Korean note, equal to about $1.
"Even if they don't want the radio, people will take the money,"Shin said.
He is still searching for the ideal radio - light enough to ride aballoon, solar-powered so it will not need North Korea's scarceelectricity, cheap enough to send by the thousands.
One possibility is a matchbook-sized model used by La Mirada,Calif.-based Far Eastern Broadcasting Corp. But it needs batteries, aluxury in North Korea. Another possibility is a solar-powered radio,made for Christian missionaries by a Canadian company called Galcom.The drawback is it only receives a single channel.
"We don't want people who get these to listen to rock 'n' roll,"said Allan McGuirl, Galcom's international director.
But Shin wants radios that let people listen to all kinds ofstations - religious or profane, South Korean, American, Chinese orJapanese. He said substituting Christian radio for North Korea'sofficial broadcasts is like "replacing one dictator with another."
North Koreans call their official radio sets "the speaker,"because they are built to receive a single channel that airspronouncements of the regime of Kim Jong Il. Last week, North Korea'sofficial news blasted foreign efforts to use radio, movies and theInternet to deliver outside news as the "imperialists' ideologicaland cultural poisoning, a crafty and vicious method of aggression,interference and domination without gunfire."
Foreign broadcasters, such as Radio Free Asia and Christian radiostations, have beamed alternative programming into North Korea foryears. Ahn Jae-hoon, director of Korean-language Radio Free Asia,said his listenership has increased significantly among North Korea'selite, based on interviews with defectors, who said they usedsmuggled radios or modified the North Korean models to change thechannel.
"They know government propaganda isn't true," said Ahn, a formerWashington Post reporter. "Anything that gets into a closed societyis eye-opening."
Shin acknowledges that radios cannot fill empty stomachs. But hebelieves they can provide hope, opening minds with news from outsidethe Hermit Kingdom.
"It will change North Korea, something coming from the sky," Shinsaid. "They will keep their heads up."
Watching and waiting for balloons.
No comments:
Post a Comment