Defector Kim Yong Hwa has been sending bottles of rice out to sea from South Korea’s Ganghwa Island in the hope that they would be picked up by North Koreans.
SEOUL: Kim Yong Hwa is a defector who escaped North Korea in 1988 and made his way to China. He lived there for years before he travelled to Vietnam with a view to seeking political asylum in South Korea.
It was only in 2001 that he finally arrived in South Korea and since then, has been engaged in various projects to help people from his homeland. „I help North Koreans defect to the South and also help those who have already come here but are not able to adjust, “ he said.
He also organises campaigns to send rice to North Korea, in the hope that should a war break out on the Korean peninsula, people in the North would not turn against their neighbours. „They know the rice is from South Korea and they will be grateful. The rice will be stronger than a gun or a bomb, “ he told Channel NewsAsia.
The rice is sent to the North in plastic bottles with labels indicating that they are sent from the South. Each bottle is filled with about a kilogramme of rice and thrown into the sea, usually near Ganghwa Island in the West Sea.
Kim is certain that the bottles will reach Ongjin county and Haeju city in South Hwanghae province, North Korea by the next day at latest.
„I’m not from Ongjin, but I used to be with the 4th Corp of the North Korean People’s Army near Haeju in Hwanghae province, “ Kim explained.
