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Assembly passes bill on banning cross-border launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets
Posted : 2020-12-15 09:21
Updated : 2020-12-15 10:29
Lawmakers attend the National Assembly s plenary session in its main building in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
South Korea s parliament on Monday passed a controversial bill prohibiting the launching of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean border, a move critics say violates freedom of expression.
The revision to the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act, billed as the anti-leaflet law, outlaws the scattering of leaflets critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un or his political system across the border.
Violators of the law can face up to three years in prison or a fine of up to 30 million won (US$27,000), if convicted.
In this file photo, South Korean and US activists release balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets at a field near the Demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas in the border city of Paju on April 29, 2016. - AFP
SEOUL (Reuters): South Korea s Parliament passed a Bill on Monday (Dec 14) to ban the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, a move that was condemned by rights activists as a violation of freedom of speech.
Groups run by North Korean defectors and other campaigners have for decades 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 in bottles on border rivers. North Korea has long denounced the practice.
South Korean lawmakers ban propaganda leaflets
THREAT TO TIES: The bill was introduced in June after Kim Jong-un’s sister said that Seoul should ban leaflets or else face the ‘worst phase’ of inter-Korean relations
Reuters, SEOUL
South Korea on Monday banned the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, drawing the criticism of human rights advocates and defiance from a prominent North Korean defector, who said he would not stop sending messages to his homeland.
Defectors and other campaigners in South Korea have for decades sent leaflets critical of the North Korean regime over the tightly guarded border, usually by balloon or in bottles on border rivers.