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Activists advised against sending ‘The Interview’ DVDs to North

January 16, 2015
South Korean activists send anti-Pyonyang leaflets over the norther border. (NEWSis)

South Korean activists send anti-Pyonyang leaflets over the norther border. (NEWSis)

SEOUL, Jan. 16 (Yonhap) — Government officials have advised local activists face-to-face against their plan to send DVDs of the controversial U.S. film “The Interview” across the border to North Korea, the unification ministry said Friday.

A group of activists are planning to launch the DVD campaign next week as part of their regular activities to spread dissenting messages in North Korea, often carried in anti-regime leaflets in big plastic balloons.

"The Interview" poster.

“The Interview” poster.

The leaflet campaign has often been a source of inter-Korean tension, with the North strongly demanding intervention by the South Korean government to block the campaign.

A director-level official from the Ministry of Unification met yesterday with Park Sang-hak, the head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, which leads such campaigns, and conveyed the government’s concerns over the forthcoming plan, ministry spokesman Lim Byeong-cheol said in a briefing.

“The government expects the Park side to review the matter seriously and decide (to end the campaign),” the spokesman said. Park, however, did not immediately give his stance on the matter, he added.

The stronger-than-usual government guidance was made in consideration of possible safety risks the campaign could inflict on South Korean residents in the border area, as well as the possible rise of social division over the controversial issue, the spokesman also noted.

The unidentified ministry official also delivered a similar guidance to another activist group involved in the leaflet campaign, the spokesman said.

The latest move reflects the government’s previously stated intention to intervene in the activists’ border campaigns on safety concerns, although in principle this is a matter of freedom of speech.

The North has repeatedly threatened to retaliate if such campaigns are carried out.

The communist country has also strongly denounced the release of the U.S. comedy film that revolves around a trip by two TV producers to North Korea to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.