| Page 3 of 3 < |
Brawl Near Koreas' Border
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
Park is now chairman of Fighters for Free North Korea, a group based in Seoul. His work has won him international recognition. In September, he joined dissidents from around the world at a luncheon hosted by President Bush in New York.
Balloons became part of Park's life when he learned that the South Korean Defense Ministry had used them to deliver propaganda to the North, a practice that ended after a conciliatory North-South summit in 2000.
The long, tube-shaped balloons that Park launches are made by hand from sheets of vinyl and filled with hydrogen at the border. Helium is too expensive, Park said.
He said he has sent nearly 2 million anti-Kim leaflets north by balloon. Since April, he added, each of the waterproof leaflets has been attached to a U.S. dollar bill. Funding comes from individuals in South Korea and the United States, he said.
Park said he has asked the U.S. State Department for money, but it has not given him any. "Because of my balloons, the North Koreans are rounding up anyone with one dollar," Park joked Tuesday morning -- before he had to fight to launch his balloons.
It took more than an hour of pushing and shoving, and the help of a phalanx of South Korean policemen, before Park and others could launch a single balloon.
After it had soared into a cloudless sky and was carried north by the breeze, Park taunted his adversaries.
"You are the running dogs of Kim Jong Il!" he shouted. "You are trash!"
"You are afraid of unification!" they shouted back.
Park replied, "I am going to launch balloons every day, if the weather permits."
