South Korea passes laws to ban anti-North Korea leaflets amid activists' outcry
15 December, 2020
South Korea's parliament passed a Bill on Monday (Dec 14) to ban the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, a approach that was condemned by rights activists as a good violation of freedom of speech.
Groups run by North Korean defectors and other campaigners experience for many years sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets - alongside food, medicine, US$1 bills, mini radios and USB sticks containing South Korean news and dramas - into the North, usually by balloon or perhaps found in bottles on border rivers. North Korea has prolonged denounced the practice.
The amendment to the Expansion of Inter-Korean Relations Act bars any scattering of printed components, goods, money and various other items of value over the heavily fortified frontier.
It also restricts loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts, which the South's army once championed within psychological warfare against the North until it withdrew the equipment carrying out a 2018 inter-Korean summit.
Any violation of regulations, which will take effect in 90 days, is punishable by up to 3 years in prison or 30 million won (US$27,500) on fines.
The change was approved despite filibuster efforts from opposition lawmakers to block the super-majority of the ruling party of President Moon Jae-in, who's keen to boost cross-border ties.
CONSTITUTIONAL CHALLENGE
The Bill was introduced in June by ruling party lawmakers after Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean head Kim Jong Un, warned Seoul should enact a regulation to stop leaflets or face the "worst phase" of relations.
"They were trying to place Kim Yo Jong's order into legislation at her solo word," Tae Yong-ho, an opposition lawmaker and previous North Korean diplomat, explained found in his 10-hour filibuster speech, adding the Bill would sole help Kim's federal government continue "enslaving" its persons.
A lot more than 20 defectors and rights groupings in Southern Korea vowed to problem the law's constitutionality, while Individual Rights Check out called the ban Seoul's "misguided strategy" to get Kim's favour by cracking down alone citizens.
Chris Smith, a US Republican congressman co-chairing a bipartisan individual rights commission, issued a statement criticising the amendment as "ill-conceived, frightening" for facilitating the imprisonment of folks for simply sharing facts.
When asked about Smith's statement, Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said the Bill was a "minimal effort to safeguard the lives and safety of residents in border regions".
"It is a blanket ban that criminalises mailing remittances to families found in North Korea and denies their rights to exterior data," said Shin Hee-seok of the Transitional Justice Functioning Group, among the 20 groups.
"Such appeasement efforts only risk inviting even more North Korean provocations and requirements."
Source:
TAG(s):