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South Korean Activist To Drop "The Interview" In North Korea Using Balloons

Posted by samzenpus on from the it's-raining-movies dept.

Siddharth Srinivas writes Park Sang Hak, a North Korean democracy activist, said he will start dropping 100,000 DVDs and USBs with Sony's The Interview by balloon in North Korea as early as late January. 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.

26 of 146 comments (clear)

  1. And who will watch it? by damn_registrars · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are there 100,000 DVD players or PCs in private hands in North Korea? This doesn't seem like it is likely to have much effect.

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    1. Re:And who will watch it? by jfdavis668 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Make sure it has the right location zone.

    2. Re:And who will watch it? by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 4, Informative

      DVD players are quite common in the North, the government produced a wide range of propaganda for public consumption. Computers, less so, but remember, they are connected to what is essentially a locked down "intranet".

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    3. Re:And who will watch it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      I read through this report the other day:
      Report of the detailed findings of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea - A/HRC/25/CRP.1
      http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/CoIDPRK/Pages/ReportoftheCommissionofInquiryDPRK.aspx

      From that document it sounded like watching/selling unapproved dvds was a major reason for people to go to the prison camps. So it can't be that rare. The report estimates that 50% had watched a foreign DVD by 2012:

      214. All CDs and DVDs used in the DPRK must have a stamp to show they are government approved. Over the last few years with the growth of informal markets, movies and recorded television programmes from the Republic of Korea are increasingly being smuggled into the DPRK for use on CD/DVD players and mini disk drives. Local officials, sometimes including SSD agents, or persons connected to these officials, are often involved in secretly selling and distributing ROK films. A 2012 study on the changing media environment in the DPRK found that half of its sample reported having watched a foreign DVD.
      215. Many witnesses spoke about crackdowns and inspections searching for ROK soap operas and films on DVDs, CDs and USB sticks. They recounted personally being caught and punished for watching ROK content, or knowing people who were subject to such treatment. The minimum punishment for those found to have watched South Korean films or with South Korean films in their possession was a period in a labour re-education centre.

    4. Re:And who will watch it? by Charliemopps · · Score: 3, Informative

      Are there 100,000 DVD players or PCs in private hands in North Korea? This doesn't seem like it is likely to have much effect.

      http://i.guim.co.uk/static/w-6...

      They don't even have electricity... so I doubt it.

    5. Re:And who will watch it? by magarity · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And you can bet they watch the propaganda, because in North Korea, TV watches YOU!.

      Worse, in North Korea your neighbor watches you. People can get executed, or worse, for possessing one of these DVDs or even finding one laying on the ground and picking it up when the wrong person is passing by at the same time. I wonder if this "activist" cares about that at all.

    6. Re: And who will watch it? by NoKaOi · · Score: 3, Informative

      Technically, it is an Internet, not an intranet. However, it's not the Internet.

      Technically, it's an internet, not an Internet. The Internet is an internet, but an internet is not necessarily the Internet.

    7. Re:And who will watch it? by Half-pint+HAL · · Score: 3, Informative

      What? That's a ridiculous comparison. If someone was to send you a parcel of cocaine and you got arrested because the police did a random check that day, then you'd agree that the guy who sent the drugs screwed you over. This is contraband. Sending it over risks getting the recipients killed.

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    8. Re: And who will watch it? by TapeCutter · · Score: 2

      Inter = between, net - network. NK has what used to be called a WAN.

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      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    9. Re:And who will watch it? by rtb61 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The are two points of view on that. Most certainly the people of North Korea are suffering under the egotistical and lust driven machinations of psychopaths but it is the people of North Korea who are ultimately responsible for their being victims. The people of North Korea are teaching the rest of us a very valuable lesson, cowardice and obedience bring horrible punishments to by far the majority far worse than the suffering of a minority, two minorities, the minority who died bringing an end to the minority who killed them and that minority who dies being a necessary part of the majority who resist.

      So always choose to resist or become North Koreans living in fear and misery trapped by their own cowardice. Never ever allow your 'Political Leaders' to demand respect from the electorate, always demand that you 'Political Representatives' respect the electorate. Next time someone talks about political leaders rather than political representatives, demand they bend over and give them a swift kick up the arse for being idiots. In a democracy you never ever elect people to lead you, you elect them to represent you, otherwise you are destined to become another North Korean.

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    10. Re:And who will watch it? by Solandri · · Score: 2

      They're more common than you'd think. This isn't the first movie to be sent to North Korea. These groups (many of them staffed and financially backed by North Korean defectors) have been sending a steady diet of South Korean dramas and K-pop to North Korea for several years now. It's actually what convinced many of them to defect - it made them realize their government had been lying to them about South Korea being a pauper nation.

  2. Work Camps by pawned · · Score: 3, Insightful

    And how many innocent NK citizens will be consigned to labor camps, for possessing imperialist propaganda blaspheming the "Great Leader?"

  3. Great way to get rid of the curious ones by future+assassin · · Score: 2

    that pick them up and get executed.

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  4. Haven't the North Korean people suffered enough? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    We have to subject them to Seth Rogen, too?

  5. S. Korean Idiot tries to piss off N. Korean idiot. by Tsolias · · Score: 3

    I'd rather drop 100.000 bags w/ food over Africa than try to impress the public with idiotic moves, or drop 100.000 DVDs full of e-books rather than a piece of useless crap to entertain several thousands for a couple of hours.

  6. Re:Nth Koreans will shoot anyone caught with it by wisnoskij · · Score: 4, Funny

    0/5 Stars: Totally not worth getting executed for.

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  7. Re:S. Korean Idiot tries to piss off N. Korean idi by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 3, Informative

    Dumping food on countries kills off the local farms, causing even greater food insecurity.

    Think before you drop bags of food on people's heads, crushing their farm animals and houses.

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  8. Re:Let's Do It Right! by TeknoHog · · Score: 2

    Nuke them with the DVDs from the orbit. It's the only way to be sure.

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  9. Re:Good use of money? by halivar · · Score: 2

    There is also a psychological factor. In NK, the Kim dynasty is deified. In all aspects of North Korean life, the leader is worshiped as a god, with all the attribution of miracles that entails. To mock him openly is to challenge his deity. The point is not to convince North Koreans, but to introduce cognitive dissonance into their worship, thereby undermining Kim's absolute authority. The beauty of it is that no one even has to watch it; the very existence of the movie, and the average North Koreans knowledge of it, is sufficient to this task.

  10. I feel sorry for north koreans by bloodhawk · · Score: 4, Funny

    I feel sorry for north Koreans, haven't they suffered enough? Being given that dogshit movie could count as a war crime.

  11. Re:S. Korean Idiot tries to piss off N. Korean idi by phantomfive · · Score: 2

    He's a North Korean. He's doing it to help his fellow citizens. Will it help them? I don't know.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  12. Dick move by YoungManKlaus · · Score: 2

    rather send the guys something actually funny, they don't need yet another unfunny thing in their lives.

  13. So they're admitting... by stox · · Score: 4, Funny

    that this movie is a bomb?

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    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  14. Re:S. Korean Idiot tries to piss off N. Korean idi by dissy · · Score: 2

    Think before you drop bags of food on people's heads, crushing their farm animals and houses.

    As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!

  15. Re:S. Korean Idiot tries to piss off N. Korean idi by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 2

    As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!

    You deserve to be modded up just for that obscure '70 reference. I deserve to be modded up because I recognized it.

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    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  16. But... by MitchDev · · Score: 2

    it's a Seth Rogan movie, isn't making someone watch it a crime against humanity?