Sending KJI a Birthday Present

Everyone’s favorite balloonman is sending leaflets stuffed with North Korean currency for KJI’s birthday

SEOUL, South Korea: Activists who send leaflets to North Korea by balloon to denounce its totalitarian government said Monday they plan to include local currency as an incentive to pick up new propaganda to mark the birthday of leader Kim Jong Il.

Sending North Korean money would be a new ploy for activists in South Korea in their attempts to urge their poverty-stricken neighbors to rise up against Kim’s regime, though they previously have tucked U.S. dollars or Chinese yuan into such leaflets.

The new plan has caused concern by South Korea’s government that it could provoke the North amid high tension between the sides, which technically remain in a state of conflict because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyeon renewed a warning Monday that the activists could face jail or fines if they send North Korea money without government permission.

But the activists said they were ready for any punishment, adding leaflets and currency would be dispatched near the birthday of Kim Jong Il, which is Feb. 16.

Fines and jail time? Considering that most defectors risked torture and death getting to the south, that is nothing to them. This is the difference between these activists and their Pro-North counterparts, willing to deal with the consequences for their actions instead of trying to weasel out of it.