This North Korean defector sends ‘smart’ balloons back home. Here’s a look inside his secretive assembly room

CNN:

Beside a desk scattered with soldering pieces, loose wires and electronic parts, Choi’s computer screen tracks wind conditions and the GPS location of some unlikely parcels: massive “smart” balloons he has sent floating into North Korea.

From a small apartment in South Korea’s capital, Choi, who CNN is identifying by a pseudonym for his privacy and safety, is one of the parties engaged in what has become a tit-for-tat balloon feud between the two Koreas, heightening tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

For many years, South Korean activists and North Korean defectors have sent balloons to the North, loaded with propaganda material criticizing dictator Kim Jong Un and USB sticks filled with K-pop songs and South Korean television shows – all strictly prohibited in the impoverished, highly isolated nation.