Hope Floats: Balloons Carrying Messages Light Up Pyongyang Skies

Park Sang-hak

Chairman of the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK)

Chairman Park Sang-hak receiving the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent at the Oslo Freedom Forum in May 2013

On the early morning of May 31st, 2020, hundreds of thousands of Balloon Propagandas were dropped in various parts of Pyongyang City. They were sent by members of the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK) the previous day and had flown to and dropped over Pyongyang. The Balloon Propaganda was able to reach and drop over Pyongyang due to favorable weather conditions that day, including wind direction. The Propaganda balloons were equipped with GPS, making it possible to determine where they landed.

The Balloon Propaganda Sent to North Korea by Defector Organizations

We sent bundles of leaflets tied to 20 large ad balloons. Each bundle contained 500,000 Balloon Propagandas criticizing Kim Jong-un's nuclear development, 500 booklets with international news, 2,000 one-dollar bills, and 1,000 SD cards with South Korean and American movies and dramas.

According to local North Korean sources, at the time, the Balloon Propaganda dropped in various parts of Pyongyang, and most of the residents became aware of it, leading to a commotion to collect them. Propagandas also fell within the premises of Kim Il Sung University, prompting the security agencies to mobilize urgently for collection. They also urged students and residents to report any obtained leaflets. However, it's said that the North Korean residents secretly kept the one-dollar bills they found from the leaflets, which is equivalent to a worker's monthly wage in North Korea.

The shock caused by the Balloon Propaganda falling in Pyongyang was so significant that Kim Jong-un's sister, Kim Yo-jong, directly condemned the defectors and pressured the South Korean government to create a "Balloon Propaganda Ban Law". South Korea's Moon Jae-in administration complied, drafting a law that would imprison its citizens for sending these leaflets. However, recently South Korea's Constitutional Court ruled this so-called "Kim Yo-jong directed law" unconstitutional. It's late but welcomed - a judicial vindication against the heinous law that criminalizes the act of informing the North Koreans blinded by the Kim regime about the truth.

This incident once again proved that Balloon Propagandas sent by North Korean defectors can indeed shake North Korea. In a South-North military practical meeting in October 2008, the North Korean delegation expressed their displeasure by throwing a box filled with hundreds of leaflets collected from defector organizations. It's said that in September 2009, on Party Foundation Day, leaflets sent by defector organizations fell in the heart of Pyongyang at Kim Il Sung Square, causing a significant disturbance.

The reason North Korea is so sensitive to the leaflets sent by the defectors is simple. North Korea's regime is maintained based on controlling external information and brainwashing its citizens. Failing to block the dissemination of external information could be so powerful it might lead to regime collapse.

I am an alumnus of Kim Chaek University of Technology in North Korea. After entering South Korea, I was able to live a normal life working for a company. However, I couldn't bear enjoying the freedoms and human rights in South Korea by myself. Driven by the desire to share them with my compatriots back home, I've been sending them information about the outside world, dollars, medicines, etc., via Balloon Propaganda.

Humans are born with not only physical life but also the noble right of human rights. However, such rights do not exist for North Koreans. The hereditary Kim dynasty is fanatically focused on nuclear weapon development for regime preservation, even while their citizens starve to death, robbing them of their very right to live.

When I think of the defected North Korean women who, unable to bear hunger, crossed the border and are subjected to human trafficking, sexual assault, and beatings in foreign lands without a word of complaint, I can't sleep. The tormented cries of those who, due to unwanted pregnancies, were forcibly repatriated and subjected to brutal torture, miscarriages, and infant killings in detention centers still echo in my ears.

North Korea is a country where one can be imprisoned or executed for sins such as failing to properly display a portrait of the dictator, complaining about hunger and hardships, being exposed to Christianity in China, or watching a South Korean movie.

Chairman Park Sang-hak of the Fighters for FFNK dispersing Balloon Propaganda

With the souls of our innocent kinfolk who tragically died in the North Korean Political Prison Camps, on the banks of the Amnok and Tumen Rivers, watching over us, how can we ever lower the flag of our struggle?

Our organization, FFNK will continue to send leaflets to North Korea to educate the residents about the superiority of free democratic systems and market economies.

During windless seasons, we can use drones instead of ad balloons. The advantage of drones is that regardless of the weather or wind direction, they can precisely reach their destinations and disseminate leaflets exactly where intended.

We appeal to the international community for attention and support in our Balloon Propaganda activities, which aim to provide hope to North Koreans and unsettle Kim Jong-un's regime.