In a daring act of defiance against the totalitarian regime of Kim Jong Un, a group of activists has taken it upon themselves to send messages of hope, faith, and freedom to the oppressed citizens of North Korea, where Christmas celebrations are strictly prohibited.
The activists have launched flash drives containing Christmas celebrations and Bible readings into the Yellow Sea. These flash drives, enclosed in bottles, are designed to be carried by the currents to the shores of the North Korean peninsula.
Suzanne Scholte, chair of the North Korean Freedom Coalition based in Washington, D.C., which sponsored the messages, stated, "We should be doing everything we can to get information into North Korea by land, by sea and by air." The operation, part of the group's "Operation Truth," is, according to Scholte, "modeled after the Berlin Airlift, to get critical help to the starving people of North Korea."
The group has successfully conducted 17 launches of these bottles. Each bottle contains not only a flash drive with a Bible and a U.S. $1 bill but also enough rice to feed a family of four for a week. Among the participants in the launch were nine North Korean escapees, determined to bring freedom to their homeland.
Scholte's Christmas message, included in the bottles, reads in part, "Christmas, which is celebrated all over the world on December 25th, marks the day when 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 became known as a Holy City. But when Kim II Sung came to power, he wanted North Koreans to worship him as a god, and not the one true God. So, he killed many Christian leaders, sent others to political prison camps, or banished them. He did all he could to kill the followers of Jesus Christ..."
The flash drives also contain North Korean music, with lyrics altered from praising Kim Jong Un to worshiping God. They also feature K-Pop songs, the Books of Matthew and Mark, and recorded messages from several members of Congress advocating for freedom for the North Korean people. Senators Jim Risch and Tim Kaine, as well as Congressmen Michael McCaul and Gregory Meeks, are among those who recorded messages.
The North Korean Freedom Coalition initiated this outreach in 2022. It has also sent 600 shortwave radios with earbuds into the kingdom. During the summer, they began a program for Americans to order items that could be delivered to North Korea.
Scholte noted that an increasing number of North Koreans are gaining knowledge about the outside world due to her group's efforts. "We must communicate 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 with the benefits of a free people, to give them a life of hope instead of despair," she said.
Scholte's group, along with the Defense Forum Foundation, also assists in operating Free North Korea Radio, a station that broadcasts news and information into North Korea. Its director, Kim Song Min, who escaped in 1997, expressed his gratitude to the Americans for their support, despite the dictatorship's attempts to jam the station's programming.
"North Koreans are brainwashed from childhood to hate Americans as their enemy and believe that America occupies South Korea, making them live in misery while North Korea prospers as a paradise under the Kim dictatorship," he said.
There is another message that the activists are delivering to the North Korean people, one bottle at a time. Scholte said that message is what Americans cherish. "The benefits of a free people, a life of hope instead of despair."
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