South Korea activists float socks over to North Korea
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Members of North Korea Peace, an international volunteer group helping North Koreans, fly balloons with boxes containing pairs of socks towards North Korea near the demilitarized zone separating the two Koreas in Paju, about 50 km (32 miles) north of Seoul. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
SEOUL (AFP) - South Korean activists on Saturday released huge gas-filled balloons filled with socks over the border into impoverished North Korea despite threats from Pyongyang.
The socks can be worn to help survive the harsh winter, be sold for cash or exchanged in the communist North for food that can keep a person going for a month, the campaigners say.
About 1,000 pairs of socks were launched by five large plastic balloons from the northern South Korean city of Paju.
Each pair of socks was attached with a leaflet containing a 'politically innocuous' message, said the Seoul-based group North Korea Peace, which has been sending socks to the North once a month over the past few months.
