A South Korean advocate yesterday said that he launched 1 million propaganda leaflets by balloon into North Korea this week, in his first such campaign while standing trial for past leafleting under a contentious new law that criminalizes such actions.
The law that took effect in March last year and punishes people distributing anti-Pyongyang leaflets with up to three years in prison has been hotly debated in South Korea, with critics saying Seoul’s liberal government was sacrificing freedom of speech to improve ties with rival North Korea.
Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector-turned-advocate, said he resumed his leafleting campaign this week after halting such activities for a year during a police investigation and court trial for sending balloons across the border in April last year.
Photo: AP
The trial is continuing and no verdict has been issued.
On Monday and Tuesday, his group floated 20 large balloons carrying leaflets critical of North Korea’s nuclear program and the Kim family’s hereditary rule across the tense Korean border, Park said.
Park said the balloons also contained pictures of South Korea’s incoming conservative president, Yoon Suk-yeol, to show North Koreans the difference between South Korea’s election system and North Korea’s father-to-son successions.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Small books and USB sticks, containing information about South Korea’s economic and cultural development, were also put in the balloons, he said.
“North Korea has deceived us. It once said it would scrap its nukes, but its leader Kim Jong-un and [his sister] Kim Yo-jong are now threatening to launch pre-emptive nuclear strikes on South Korea and the international community. I want to condemn such acts,” Park said by telephone.
Police in Gyeonggi Province, who have jurisdiction over the border areas where Park claimed to have launched the leaflets, said they were checking details about Park’s activities, adding that they were not aware of Park’s reported leafleting in advance.
Park said that some of his leaflets flown this week reached Pyongyang and other North Korean cities.
Experts say many leaflets launched in the past landed in frontline South Korean areas. North Korea has not reacted to any leafleting this week.
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