Over the last several months, tensions between the USA and communist country North Korea have escalated. North Korea even sent a satellite that flew over the Super Bowl. And it wasn’t a friendly gesture. Now, someone has come up with a way to deal with the most isolated nation in the world: flash drives!
At the South by Southwest festival, there was a booth called?Flash Drives for Freedom. They had a display where visitors can put a flash drive in a mouth of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. There were hundreds of mouths you could put a flash drive in. This isn’t just some joke or social-political statement. Flash Drives for Freedom collects flash drives, filled them with Korean language, and smuggle them into North Korea. Around 7,500 made it there last year. They’re going for 25,000 this year. These drives contain Western news, e-books, movies, music, and then some. But how do they get past the super strict North Korean border guards? Apparently, all it takes is $50, or some cigarettes and alcohol to bribe them and get the flash drives to the North Korean people. But if you want to get involved, you don’t have to worry about the bribery or smuggling part. You don’t even have to worry about the Korean language part. All you have to do is send flash drives to Flash Drives for Freedom’s headquarters (check the link).
Will this movement work? I hope so. The demand among the North Korean people is there. The black market for anything and everything Western is booming. Many in North Korean society are hungry for a taste of freedom. Maybe that’s why dictator Kim Jong Un and and his cronies are trying to clamp down on freedom more than ever. You have to understand, everything is controlled in North Korea: the media, the food, jobs, money. Every move you make is watched. Even minor offenses can get you killed, forced in a labor camp, and never heard from again. Now do you see the demand for these freedom flash drives?