Gallery: The Plot to Free North Korea With Smuggled Episodes of 'Friends'

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    Joe Pugliese
    01

    north-korea-lead

    Former North Korean official Kim Heung-kwang used to search homes for illegal media; now he smuggles it into the country on flash drives.
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    Joe Pugliese
    02

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    Using walkie-talkies, laser pointers, and bribes, smuggler Jung Kwang-il arranges nighttime handoffs of USB drives with North Koreans along the border with China.
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    Joe Pugliese
    03

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    Jung: “For every USB drive I send across, there are perhaps 100 North Koreans who begin to question why they live this way. Why they’ve been put in a jar.”
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    Joe Pugliese
    04

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    For more than 60 years, the two Koreas have been in a military standoff, with soldiers posted on both sides of the border.
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    Joe Pugliese
    05

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    With heavy fortifications along the DMZ, some data activists launch balloons that float over the border and release USB sticks, money, and pamphlets.
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    Joe Pugliese
    06

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    A scene along the Freedom Highway, an eight-lane South Korea road that leads to the DMZ.
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    Joe Pugliese
    07

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    A tourist poses with a guard in the joint Security Area of the DMZ in Panmunjom.
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