{"id":6409,"date":"2011-12-24T12:51:22","date_gmt":"2011-12-24T10:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/12\/south-koreans-launch-sock-balloons-into-the-north\/"},"modified":"2011-12-24T12:51:22","modified_gmt":"2011-12-24T10:51:22","slug":"south-koreans-launch-sock-balloons-into-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/south-koreans-launch-sock-balloons-into-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"South Koreans launch &quot;sock balloons&quot; into the North"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">SEOUL<\/span> Dec 24 (Reuters) &#8211; Members of a South Korean<br \/>\nhuman rights group launched giant balloons carrying leaflets<br \/>\ninto North Korea on Saturday, a week after the death of the<br \/>\nreclusive state&#8217;s leader renewed tension on the Korean<br \/>\npeninsula.<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The launch, which drew supporters from Britain, the United<br \/>\nStates, Japan and South Africa, was the second this week and<br \/>\nrisks angering the North because of the leaflets criticising the<br \/>\nregime in Pyongyang.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>More than 50 members of the Korean Peninsula-International<br \/>\nPeace Organization gathered on the outskirts of Paju, just 3 km<br \/>\n(2 miles) from the world&#8217;s most heavily militarized border, to<br \/>\nlaunch four huge balloons.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The people of the world do not forget the ordeal that our<br \/>\nNorth Korean brothers are undergoing,&#8221; the leaflets said.<br \/>\n&#8220;Please be alive until the day of unification.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Lee Ju-seong, a spokesman for the group, said the balloons<br \/>\nalso carried hundreds of pairs of socks they hoped could be<br \/>\ntraded for food on the North Korean black market. Chronic food<br \/>\nshortages in the communist North have left many people starving.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Until the day of reunification we will continue to send<br \/>\nsocks,&#8221; said Lee, who defected from North Korea several years<br \/>\nago.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In the past, North Korea has threatened to retaliate against<br \/>\nthe balloon launches. The government in Seoul backed down this<br \/>\nweek from plans to light Christmas towers near the border after<br \/>\nPyongyang said it might strike at the South if they were lit.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The government in Seoul has not tried to stop the balloon<br \/>\nlaunches since Kim&#8217;s death, announced on Monday, although<br \/>\nactivists have been discouraged in the past to avoid provoking<br \/>\nthe North.\t<\/p>\n<p> (Reporting by Kang Seongbin; Writing by Sung-won Shim)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright\">\n<p>         \t\t\u00a9 Thomson Reuters 2011 All rights reserved<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SEOUL Dec 24 (Reuters) &#8211; Members of a South Korean human rights group launched giant balloons carrying leaflets into North Korea on Saturday, a week after the death of the reclusive state&#8217;s leader renewed tension on the Korean peninsula. The launch, which drew supporters from Britain, the United States, Japan and South Africa, was the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-6409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}