Christmas is banned in North Korea, but that is not stopping a group of activists from sending messages of hope, faith and freedom to the people suffering under the dictatorship of Kim Jong Un.
Flash drives celebrating the holiday, and including Bible readings, were launched into the Yellow Sea in bottles so that the currents will carry them to the shores of the North Korean peninsula.
"We should be doing everything we can to get information into North Korea by land, by sea and by air," says Suzanne Scholte, chair of the Washington, D.C.-based North Korean Freedom Coalition which sponsored the messages. The operation is part of the group's "Operation Truth," which Scholte says, "is modeled after the Berlin Airlift, to get critical help to the starving people of North Korea."
The group has conducted 17 launches of the bottles. Each bottle also contains enough rice to feed a family of four for a week, as well as a Bible on a flash drive and a U.S. $1 bill. Among those launching the messages were nine North Korean escapees who want to bring freedom to their homeland.
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Scholte's Christmas message that is included in the bottles says in part, "Christmas, which is celebrated all over the world on December 25th, marks the day when Jesus was born...Many of your ancestors also believed in Jesus. IN fact, in 1907, in Pyongyang, there were so many Christians who believed in Jesus that Pyongyang became known as a Holy City. But when Kim II Sung came to power, he wanted North Koreans to worship him as a god, and not the one true God. So, he killed many Christian leaders, sent others to political prison camps, or banished them. He did all he could to kill the followers of Jesus Christ..."
The flash drives also contain North Korean music, changing the lyrics from worshiping Kim Jong Un to worshiping God. They also play K-Pop songs, the Books of Matthew and Mark, as well as recorded messages from several members of Congress touting freedom for the North Korean people. Among those who recorded messages were Senators Jim Risch and Tim Kaine, as well as Congressmen Michael McCaul and Gregory Meeks.
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The North Korean Freedom Coalition started the outreach in 2022. It also has sent 600 shortwave radios with ear buds into the kingdom. During the summer, they started a program for Americans to order items that could be delivered to North Korea.
Scholte said that an increasing number of North Koreans are learning about the outside world because of the efforts of her group.
"We must communicate to the people in power in Pyongyang that they have friends and allies in Korea and America, who have only one desire for them: to share with the benefits of a free people, to give them a life of home instead of despair," she said.
"Those in leadership positions in the DPRK regime wake up in the morning with only two choices in their lives: being slaves devoted to Kim Jong Un or death and their families' deaths. That is why so many began escaping -not just for food, but for freedom, for a better life."
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Scholte's group and the Defense Forum Foundation also help operate Free North Korea Radio, a station that broadcasts news and information into North Korea. Its director, Kim Song Min, escaped in 1997, and despite attempts by the dictatorship to jam its programming, the station has broadcast on shortwave and on the internet.
"I would like to express my gratitude to the Americans for standing with us to help us reach the people of North Korea with the truth about America and South Korea," he said.
"North Koreans are brainwashed from childhood to hate Americans as their enemy and believe that America occupies South Korea, making them live in misery while North Korea prospers as a paradise under the Kim dictatorship."
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There is another message that the activists are delivering to the North Korean people, one bottle at a time.
Scholte said that message is what Americans cherish. "The benefits of a free people, a life of hope instead of despair."
Fox News' Emily Robertson contributed to this report.
