Japanese Group Plan Giant Leaflet Drop
A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago.
The Tokyo-based Investigation Commission on Missing Japanese Probably Related to North Korea plans to send the first batch of the balloons from near South Korea’s border with the North in late March, according to the group’s leader, Kazuhiro Araki.
The 5-meter-long balloons are fitted with simple timers and can be preset to release sacks of flyers over the Pyongyang region, Araki said.
The postcard-sized flyers, which are waterproof and printed in Japanese and Korean, call for details on Japanese citizens abducted by communist agents in the 1970s and 1980s.
The flyers also offer a cash reward of up to US$10,000 for information on Japanese abductees and urge residents to contact a hot line in Japan or tune in to a radio program the group transmits toward North Korea.
My concern is that they make pretty easy targets for North Korea’s anti-air guns. Seems like a good plan if it succeeds in dropping the flyers.
If you’re interested, here is the groups very outdated Japanese site.
