South Korea passes law to ban flying of leaflets toward North Korea
South Korea’s parliament has passed a bill to ban the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea amid rising tension over Seoul’s failure to stop defectors from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets over the border.
The amendment to the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, which will take effect in three months, bars any scattering of printed materials, goods, money and other items of value across the heavily fortified frontier.
It also restricts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts, which the South Korean military once championed as part of psychological warfare.
Any violation of the law is punishable by up to three years in prison or about 27,500 dollars in fine.
The change was approved despite filibuster attempts from opposition lawmakers to block the super-majority of the ruling party of President Moon Jae-in, who is keen to improve cross-border ties.
The bill was essentially introduced in June by ruling party lawmakers after North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s sister warned South Korea of the possible scrapping of an inter-Korean military agreement if Seoul fails to stop North Korean defectors from sending the leaflets into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two countries.
Kim Yo-jong, the sister, said the military pact reached in 2018 that promised to eliminate practical threats of war was “hardly of any value.” She added that the North could also permanently shut the Kaesong industrial region and the liaison office in the North Korean border town if Seoul did not stop the defectors.
In recent years, thousands of anti-Pyongyang leaflets were flown with balloons into the North’s side of the demilitarized zone. The leaflets often carried propaganda messages that condemned Kim Jong-un over the country’s missile and nuclear programs.
North and South Korea have been separated by the DMZ since the three-year Korean War came to an end in 1953.
The zone is planted with some two million mines and guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps, and combat troops on both sides.
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