Sunday Times 2
UN wants balloons to get message to N.Korea
View(s):WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The head of a UN Commission of Inquiry said on Tuesday more efforts were needed, including the use of balloons and computer hacking, to tell the North Korean people about its damning report on human rights conditions in their country.
Retired Australian Judge Michael Kirby Kirby said it was “completely unacceptable” for North Koreans to be kept in the dark about the commission’s report, which compared abuses in their country to Nazi-era atrocities.
Speaking at a Washington conference, he highlighted recommendations from the Bush Institute think tank that hackers, balloons and even drones should be used to overcome secretive North Korea’s information barriers.
Kirby, who spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank, questioned whether South Koreawas being cautious about using balloons to take messages north across the border to avoid damaging its long-term strategy of national reunification.
Turning to fellow panelist Lee Jung-hoon, South Korea’s ambassador for human rights, Kirby said another way to get the details of the report into North Korea would be to hack into its closed Internet, or intranet, system.
“You have some of the cleverest technicians in the world,” he said to Lee. “You can’t tell me … that there wouldn’t be a technological way to get into the Intranet to get this in – if there’s a will.”