Activists stand at the water's edge at Seokmo Island, Ganghwa County in Incheon, on late Thursday night to throw 200 plastic bottles containing rice, USB drives, SD cards and cold medicines into the West Sea, hoping that the bottles might reach North Korea. Courtesy of Park Jung-oh

Park Jung-oh, 54, and seven other activists threw plastic bottles stuffed with rice, USB drives, SD cards and cold medicines, one after another, into the West Sea near Ganghwa County in Incheon, late on Thursday night.

The stuffed two-liter bottles created a distinct sound as they hit the surface of the frigid water.

On this dark, chilly night, eight activists threw 200 of the bottles into the water as waves crashed on the shore around them.

Park, a North Korean defector and human rights activist, hoped that the bottles might travel all the way to North Korean waters, and that hungry residents there might find them, eat the rice and learn about free and affluent South Korea as portrayed in the Korean dramas loaded on the USB drives and SD cards.

"My humble wish is that more North Koreans can find the bottles and realize that they have been deceived by the North Korean regime for their whole lives," he told The Korea Times, Friday.

Park founded the non-profit advocacy group Keunsaem, or "big spring," established to send relief goods to the North and provide free after school programs for underprivileged children, including those born to North Korean escapees. He began the bottle program in 2015.

"At the time, I heard from a member of our prayer meeting group that people in North Korea's southwestern province of Hwanghae were going hungry. I thought that was weird because the region is filled with rice fields. How could farmers who grow rice and grain have no food to eat?" he said. "I was told that when harvest season came, armed soldiers would show up to rice fields and collect all the crops from the farmers, so the farmers were left with nothing to eat."

He said he and other members of the prayer meeting discussed how they could help the people going hungry in the North.

Someone presented the idea of casting bottled rice into the sea that might make it all the way to North Korea.

"The person said he had heard about it being done years before. We thought it was a great idea," he said.

Park immediately called maritime research institutes to talk to experts and met fishermen living near the West Sea to double-check if stuffed plastic bottles could move upward in the waters of the West Sea to reach North Korea as he and fellow activists were planning.

"They said it's possible, telling me we should get the bottles into the water as the tide goes out. They also said time and date matter. They advised me to thoroughly check those three factors — date, time and the tidal direction — to make that happen," he said.

Park, along with fellow activists, went to Seokmo Island, Ganghwa County, in late Thursday night for the operation. Midnight was determined as the time when all three conditions would be met.

Two-liter plastic bottles containing rice, USB drives, SD cards and cold medicine / Courtesy of Park Jung-oh

Park has sent the bottles to North Korea twice a month since April 2015.

He has had feedback from several different fellow North Korean escapees.

"One of them said people living in Ongjin, Hwanghae Province, had found the bottles of rice. Some cooked the rice to feed their families, and some sold it and purchased cheaper grain in bulk at the market," he said.

He said he was glad to hear that the bottles had reached North Koreans.

"A friend of mine, who is a filmmaker, told me the other day that Korean dramas we put on the USB drives and SD cards have created a stir in the North as people secretly watched them and some shared them with others," he said.

Park hoped that the bottles could become an agent of change in North Korea.

"Awareness is the key to change in North Korea," he said, adding that residents there need to know what kind of society they are living in and how they are being duped by the regime.

Without knowing this, he said it is unlikely that any change will happen in North Korea.

"Outside information is critical to channel their anger and frustration into collective action for change, because North Korea is a closed society and people there are cut off from the outside world," he said.

Park Jung-oh, a North Korean defector and founder of the non-profit advocacy group Keunsaem, is surrounded by reporters in Seoul in this 2020 file photo. Korea Times file

Park's campaign to help North Koreans have access to outside information met an obstacle when former President Moon Jae-in of the liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) came to power in May 2017.

Some DPK lawmakers revealed their hostility toward North Korean defectors, and some called them "traitors" just because they defected to South Korea.

Moon tried to improve inter-Korean relations through a set of engagement-oriented policy measures. His prioritization of peace on the Korean Peninsula sometimes came at the cost of human rights, as seen in the case of the forced repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in November 2019, despite their defection to the South.

The DPK took advantage of its majority status in the National Assembly to introduce the controversial Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act which banned activists from sending anti-North Korea propaganda materials to the North. Violators would face up to three years in jail.

Then the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) dubbed it "legislation supervised by North Korean leader's sister Kim Yo-jung," as a group of DPK lawmakers hurriedly introduced the ban after Kim lashed out at North Korean escapees for sending the anti-Kim regime leaflets.

Back then, Park's bottled rice program was illegal under the Act.

"It was the toughest time for North Korean defectors, particularly those who operated human rights programs," he said, recalling what happened to him during the five years under Moon's presidency. "I stood trial eight times as the police kept trying to find fault with me, and pressed charges against me whenever they identified a minor offense on my part," he said.

"My office was searched by the investigators. There were numerous other cases that made me think that the government had targeted me and tried to stop me from sending the bottles north."

In September, the Constitutional Court ruled against the Act, saying the ban on sending anti-North Korea propaganda materials is unconsitutional.

Despite the ruling, Park said he is still feeling the pinch because corporate donors, who also came under pressure, stopped supporting the campaign.

"Even after conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol took office, those corporate donors still haven't resumed their donations because they are worried about another possible administration change in next presidential election," he said.

Despite the tough circumstances, Park said he will not give in and will continue to do the food-for-awareness campaign to help enlighten North Koreans.

"All I want is reunification of the two Koreas. I hope that can happen without bloodshed. To make it happen, we need to keep informing North Koreans that they must stand up to free North Korea," he said.