S Korea activist sends 'The Interview' DVDs into North

SEOUL - A South Korean activist said Thursday he had launched thousands of copies of the Hollywood film "The Interview" into North Korea by balloon, after police blocked a previous attempt last week.

The unpublicised launch was carried out around midnight Wednesday in Gimpo, close to the western tip of the heavily fortified border, defector-turned-activist Park Sang-Hak told AFP.

The balloons were carrying hundreds of thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets as well as 5,000 DVDs and 5,000 USB ports containing copies of the movie about a fictional CIA plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un.

Pyongyang has slammed the Seth Rogen comedy as a "wanton act of terror" and threatened dire consequences if any attempt is made to distribute the film in the North.

"From now I will carry out balloon-launches more often but in a quiet way," said Park, who was blocked from approaching the border by police during a similar ballon-launch operation last week.

North Korea has long condemned the cross-border launches and demanded that South Korea step in to prevent them.

Last October North Korea border guards attempted to shoot down some balloons, triggering a brief exchange of heavy machine gun fire between the two sides.

While appealing to activists to avoid provoking the North, Seoul insists their actions are protected by freedom of expression principles.