USB Containing 'Crash Landing on You' and 'Top Gun' Sent to North Korea

From Hollywood Movies to Korean Dramas Included

The Free North Korea Movement, an organization of North Korean defectors, announced that from April 25 to 26, they sent 1 million leaflets containing photos of President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol and others to North Korea by attaching them to 20 large balloons in the Gimpo area of Gyeonggi Province. The photo shows the leaflets sent by the organization. [Photo by Free North Korea Movement]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hee-jun Jang] The U.S. international human rights organization 'Human Rights Foundation' sent 2,000 portable storage devices (USBs) to North Korea this year.

The Human Rights Foundation sent 2,000 USB devices, including flash drives and SD cards, to North Korea this year through a program called 'Flash Drives for Freedom,' reported Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the 30th.

The program manager, Seong-min Lee, explained, "We carried out this activity in cooperation with local organizations led by North Korean defectors." He estimated that if one storage device is shared by 10 North Korean residents, about 20,000 North Koreans may have accessed outside information.

Lee said the storage devices included movies, documentaries, content created by defectors, and reading materials in PDF format, citing examples such as the Korean dramas Crash Landing on You and Descendants of the Sun, as well as Hollywood films like Top Gun and Titanic.

The foundation stated that despite significant difficulties for human rights organizations due to the ban on sending leaflets to North Korea, North Korea's border closures, and China's 'zero COVID' measures, activities to introduce information into North Korea are being carried out through alternative methods such as sending essential goods and USBs in plastic bottles floated down rivers.

The total number of portable storage devices sent by the foundation to North Korea since 2016 has reached 130,000.

Seong-min Lee, who was born in Hyesan, Yanggang Province, and defected from North Korea in 2009, said that through such information introduction activities, "many North Korean residents will be able to realize the reality of long-standing deprivation and oppression."