Kim Jong Un has a forceful answer to the human rights groups that were planning to drop copies of “The Interview” into North Korea via hydrogen balloons: A military task force.
According to a source for The Chosun Ilbo daily newspaper in South Korea, a general in the country’s State Security Department has created a task force that’s mission will be to block the Sony Pictures film from entering the country.
“The regime has started cracking down on the black market, while keeping close watch on smugglers in the border area,” explained the newspaper’s source. “Officials are visiting homes and checking computers and DVD players.”
The reports about the task force come just weeks after human rights groups Fighters for a Free North Korea and the Human Rights Foundation expressed their plan to use hydrogen balloons to gift copies of the film to individuals in North Korea.
The general in charge of the task force has also informed security officials, police officers and border guards of the need to block “The Interview” from entering the country.
The film, which was originally pulled from its December 25 release by Sony following a massive hack attack perpetrated by North Korea, has been screened in select theaters and streamed online.
No matter the strength of the task force, Kim Jong Un will likely have difficulty keeping the movie — which parodies an assassination plot against him — completely out of North Korea.
“The Interview” has been downloaded illegally on BitTorrent 750,000 times worldwide, and pirated DVD copies of the movie made their way to China in a matter of days after its release.
Moreover, the film is can be watched with Chinese subtitles on microblogging site Weibo. Millions of Chinese may have already viewed it.
Apparently, the hydrogen balloons won’t be necessary.
H/T Bloomberg
