Tribute Post: Park Sang-Hak

Park Sang-Hak defected from North Korea and currently lives in South Korea.  He has pledged to smuggle 10,000 copies of new comedy, The Interview, into North Korea via balloon.  Story at MarketWatch.

Most who escape communism pursue life and career goals - the reasons for escaping in the first place.  They are driven to make-up lost time and, understandably, want to put their past behind them.

It takes a rare and selfless person to agitate against his former tyrant, and information is the best weapon against the left.  Leaflets, DVDs, and radio and TV signals, are all absorbed by North Koreans who are becoming bolder in their quest to know more.  Shin Dong-hyuk, the subject of the 2012 book, Escape from Camp 14, said every North Korean in the capitol city of Pyongyang knows their country is a communist prison in a world of relative freedom.  Not unlike the Soviet Union in the 80's, I'd suggest.

Kim Jung-Un has ordered Park Sang-Hak's assassination - confirmation Park is doing something right.   In 2011, a North Korean assassin was arrested before he got to Park Sang-Hak.

He is the Chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea, and was awarded the Vaclav Havel prize for Creative Dissent in 2013.