DP's Lee, former officals urge gov't to curtail anti-Pyongyang leaflet campaigns

Former unification ministers and officials that served during liberal administrations on Wednesday urged the government to restrict defector groups from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North.

Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, center, speaks during an emergency meeting held to "relieve inter-Korean tension" at the National Assmebly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Wednesday. [JEON MIN-KYU]

Former unification ministers and officials that served during liberal administrations on Wednesday urged the government to restrict defector groups from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to the North.

The statements were made during an emergency meeting presided over by Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul. The meeting coincides with Russian President Vladimir Putin's arrival in North Korea and follows the North's recent release of more than 1,600 balloons carrying trash into South Korea. The North claims the act is in response to the launching of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by South Korean activists.

“The Yoon Suk Yeol government is intensifying the military tension between the two Koreas,” said Moon Chung-in, a professor emeritus at Yonsei University and former special advisor for foreign affairs and national security during the Moon Jae-in administration.

Former Unification Minister Lim Dong-won, who served during the Roh Moo-hyun administration, pointed out that inter-Korean tension has been heightening for the past two years, urging the two Koreas to resume dialogue and work on economic cooperation "to prevent war."

The former officials criticized in particular the Yoon government for overlooking the South Korean activists' launch of anti-Pyongyang leaflets.

"The Yoon government is neglecting and abetting [the leaflet campaign] in the name of freedom of expression," former Unification Minister Lee Jong-seok said, adding that it is his first time seeing a government act this way. “The government should persuade the defector groups not to send leaflets for the peace of the Korean Peninsula.”

Former National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won also questioned why the government is implementing such “a foolish policy of giving paper and receiving trash.”

The South Korean government has declined to stop private citizens from flying balloons into the North after the Constitutional Court last year struck down a law banning leaflet launches, ruling it a violation of freedom of expression. However, residents living along the southern side of the inter-Korean border have called on the Yoon administration to stop the activists' balloon launches, describing them as a threat to public safety and security.

DP leader Lee also emphasized during a Supreme Council meeting earlier in the day that “the most robust and capable security is the establishment of peace,” adding that communication channels between the two Koreas should be resumed in line with the frameworks utilized in the senior-level strategic talks between South Korea and China a day earlier and the Korea-Japan-China trilateral summit.

Meanwhile, the conservative People Power Party (PPP) the same day commented on the North Korea-Russia summit, saying that “certain lines must not be crossed.”

PPP spokesperson Ho Jun-seok wrote a commentary on the situation, stressing that the Kim Jong-un regime’s survival would entirely depend on the suspension of military provocations and complete denuclearization.

“The PPP and the Yoon government will protect South Korea by any means necessary,” Ho's commentary read. “Kim’s regime will face due consequences if it underestimates our resolve [to protect the country].”

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]