Christmas is banned in North Korea, but that hasn’t stopped a group of activists from sending a message of hope, faith and freedom to people suffering under Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship.
The celebratory flash drives, which included Bible readings, were launched into the Yellow Sea in bottles so that the current would carry them to the shores of the North Korean peninsula.
“We should do everything we can to get information to North Korea by land, sea and air,” said Suzanne Scholte, chairwoman of the Washington, DC-based North Korea Freedom Coalition which sponsored the message. The operation was part of the group’s “Operation Permit,” which Scholte said was “modeled after the Berlin Airlift, to get critical aid to starving North Koreans.”
The group has conducted 17 bottle launches. Each bottle also contains enough rice to feed four families for a week, as well as a Bible on a flash drive and US $1 bills. Among those who launched the message were nine North Korean refugees who wanted to bring freedom to their homeland.
Scholte’s Christmas message included in the bottle says in part, “Christmas, celebrated worldwide on December 25, marks the day Jesus was born…Many of your ancestors also believed in Jesus. In fact, in 1907, in Pyongyang, there were so many Christians who believed in Jesus that Pyongyang was known as the Holy City. But when Kim II Sung came to power, he wanted the people of North Korea to worship him as a god, and not the only true God. So, he killed many Christian leaders, sent others to political prison camps, or exiled them. He did everything he could to kill the followers of Jesus Christ…”
North Koreans are banned from celebrating Christmas. Getty Images
The flash drive also contains North Korean music, changing the lyrics from worshiping Kim Jong Un to worshiping God. They also played K-Pop songs, The Book of Matthew and Mark, and recorded messages from several members of Congress touting freedom for the people of North Korea. Among those who recorded messages were Senators Jim Risch and Tim Kaine, as well as Congressmen Michael McCaul and Gregory Meeks.
The North Korean Freedom Coalition began outreach in 2022. It has also sent 600 shortwave radios with ear buds to the kingdom. During the summer, they started a program for Americans to order goods that could be shipped to North Korea.
Scholte said that more and more North Koreans are learning about the outside world because of his group’s efforts.
Activists try to breach Kim Jong Un’s closed border. AP
“We must convey to the people in power in Pyongyang that they have friends and allies in Korea and America, who have only one desire for them: to share in the benefits of free people, to give them a life at home instead of despair. ,” he said.
“Those who hold leadership positions in the DPRK regime wake up in the morning with only two choices in their lives: to be loyal servants to Kim Jong Un or death and the death of their families. That’s why many started to flee – not just for food, but for freedom, for a better life.”
The Scholte Group and the Defense Forum Foundation also help operate Radio North Korea Free, a station that broadcasts news and information to North Korea. Its director, Kim Song Min, fled in 1997, and despite attempts by the dictator to block its programming, the station has broadcast on shortwave and on the internet.
“I want to thank the American people for standing with us to help us reach the people of North Korea with the truth about America and South Korea,” he said.
“North Koreans are brainwashed from childhood to hate America as their enemy and believe that America is occupying South Korea, making them live in misery while North Korea prospers as a paradise under Kim’s dictatorship.”
There is another message that activists are conveying to the people of North Korea, one bottle at a time.
Scholte said the message is what Americans value. “The benefit of the free, a life full of hope instead of despair.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
