Despite recent inter-Korean tensions, a Christian NGO launched balloons containing bibles towards North Korea from a location adjacent to the border on Thursday evening.

The launch, attended by NK News, took place amid South Korean government efforts to crack down on activist groups involved in cross-border balloon launches after high-profile complaints carried in North Korean state media.

Four white balloons filled with helium gas and an unspecified number of bibles were launched by a single representative of the Seoul-based Voice of the Martyrs Korea’s (VOMK) at around 19:50 from the border island of Ganghwa-do.

“When we expect a high-level of enforcement, we do a small launch,” said Pastor Eric Foley, CEO of the NGO, who personally launched the balloons. VOMK has launched up to 80 balloons at a time in the past.

Due to intensified government monitoring of his organization’s work in recent days, Foley said he had been expecting his rented van to be pursued by police or to be halted along the way.

But authorities made no effort to stop the van from reaching the launch point, with no checkpoints set up along the entirety of the route or any pursuit by unmarked cars.

That marked a stark change from VOMK’s efforts earlier in the month to float bottles containing bibles, rice, and vitamins from a location near the border, when the activists’ efforts were impeded by a police roadblock.

In any case, Foley was ready to launch the balloons even if he was stopped: while activists typically fill up balloons with helium at launch sites, he transported them pre-inflated and ready to go.

The balloons contained GPS transmitters to allow the NGO to track their direction.

“All four GPS are tracking well, they’re in North Korea, but they’re gonna hug the border all the way up,” said one of Foley’s colleagues by phone from Seoul after dispatch.

“Praise God!” said Pastor Foley when he heard the news.

Foley said when the balloons reach an altitude of between 20,000 to 30,000 feet, the atmospheric pressure forces them to pop. The bibles within them will then fall to the ground, landing, he hopes, in North Korean territory.

Foley said he wanted to conduct the balloon launch in front of media due to the “recent criminalization of balloon launching” in South Korea.

“We as a Christian ministry… hope people can see that the tactical act of balloon launching is not dangerous,” he said. “We launch using non-flammable helium using biodegradable latex balloons and GPS tracking.”

Foley said he could face arrest for his act, which is unlikely to be welcomed by either the North or South Korean governments.

“I’m ready to go to jail tonight,” he said at the outset of his launch mission. “We have had 36 people killed — men and women who laid down their lives — whose only crime was Christian activity”

“So we cannot exempt ourselves from those punishments”

The NGO says it only sends official North Korean translations of the bible with slight modifications, which are technically legal inside the DPRK,

On Tuesday, after defector-activist Park Sang-hak conducted an attempted launch of balloons carrying anti-regime flyers into North Korea, South Korea’s Ministry of Unification (MOU) condemned the act.

“The government will take strict measures regarding such activities by director Park Sang-hak and other relevant people [involved], cooperating with relevant authorities such as the police,” the statement from the MOU read.

“The Government once again clearly states that the scattering of anti-North leaflet and items is an act that threatens the life and safety of local residents, and heightens tension between the South and North — and that it will respond strongly to it.”

Edited by Oliver Hotham