South Korean activist proposes satellite link for North Korea
· UPIJune 25 (Asia Today) -- A South Korean civic leader proposed creating a satellite communications network modeled on SpaceX's Starlink to provide outside information to people in North Korea.
Jang Man-soon, chairman of the Committee for Ten Million Separated Families and a co-chair of Citizens' Solidarity for ONE KOREA, called the proposed system "Korea Link."
"If we place a system similar to Starlink over North Korea, we could inform North Koreans who have access to approximately 8.5 million mobile phones about the realities and conditions in South Korea," Jang said during an interview Thursday at the National Assembly in Seoul.
The figure was Jang's estimate and could not be independently confirmed.
Jang said the network could communicate the importance of freedom to North Korean residents and correct historical accounts and information distorted by the North Korean government.
He said it could also help North Koreans develop pride in the goal of Korean unification.
Jang argued that a new means of communication is necessary because traditional methods of reaching North Koreans, including radio broadcasts and border loudspeakers, have become increasingly restricted.
He said North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's "two hostile states" policy is partly intended to isolate residents from outside information.
"North Korea is at a disadvantage in politics, economics, culture and military power, so the government is trying to block outside information from reaching its people," Jang said.
Jang also discussed the declining prospects for families separated by the division of the Korean Peninsula and the 1950-53 Korean War.
"The wish of separated families is no longer simply to reunite with relatives," he said. "It is to set foot in their hometowns."
Many first-generation separated family members are now in their 90s, and few still have living parents in North Korea, he said.
"Their greatest wish is to visit their hometowns before they die," Jang said.
He warned that public awareness of separated families is fading with each generation.
Jang called for expanded unification education for young people, opportunities to hear testimony from first-generation separated family members and educational visits to areas near the inter-Korean border.
"The reality is that only about half of the public now believes unification is necessary," he said. "We are preparing various activities, including youth education, testimony from first-generation separated families and visits to border regions."
Jang urged the South Korean government to participate in practical projects intended to support North Korean residents and preserve awareness of freedom and unification.
"If we view the people of North Korea as members of the same nation, I hope the government will participate in the practical plans we are pursuing," he said.
"We must work together to establish a foundation that will allow future generations to understand the meaning of genuine freedom in the Republic of Korea."
-- Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260625010009002