Kim Chang-yong, Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, ordered police to investigate a South Korean activist who launched 500,000 leaflets by balloon into North Korea last week. The decision came within a day of a vitriolic, threatening remark from Kim Yo-jong, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s younger sister.
Park Sang-hak said his organization floated 10 giant balloons carrying the leaflets, reading material critical of the Kim Jong-un regime, and 5,000 $1 bills. His organization has sent leaflets to North Korea more than 60 times from 2010 to the end of last year.
The police are expected to apply the so-called “leaflet law” to the case for the first time since it went into effect on March 30 this year. The law refers to a revision to the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act that makes sending leaflets a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won ($26,845).
“It was controversial whether sending leaflets to North Korea violated the (original) Inter-Korean Relations Act but the latest amendment provided clear legal grounds,” said an official from the police on May 2. He added that the police will continue with the investigation and take appropriate enforcement measures.
“We are against anyone, including North Korea, creating tensions in the Korean Peninsula,” said an official from the Ministry of Unification. “The anti-leaflet law should be implemented as it was amended to protect people’s life and safety in border areas.”
“Though [authorities] can handcuff and put me in a prison cell, they cannot stop [my leafleting] by whatever threats or violence as long as the North Korean people wait for the letters of freedom, truth, and hope,” said Park Sang-hak, a North Korean defector known for his years of leafleting campaigns. “I do not have enough money to pay 30 million won in fines, but I am willing to serve three years in prison. I will continue to send leaflets even if they sentence me to 30 years in jail.”
Park Sang-hak argued that the Moon Jae-in administration is trying to shut people’s mouths through the anti-leaflet law and trying to blind North Korean people, who are modern-day slaves under the Kim dynasty.
“I would like to ask President Moon Jae-in – are you a human rights lawyer or a puppet of Kim Jong-un, who burned a citizen to death?”
Park added, “How is it a crime to send letters of truth and freedom to our defectors’ family members in North Korea?”
“Is this Seoul or Pyongyang? Is the Republic of Korea a liberal democratic country or a totalitarian dictatorship?”
Kim Yo-jong, the vice department director of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea as well as dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister, issued the following statement on Sunday.
“‘Defectors from the north’ in South Korea recently scattered leaflets against the DPRK again, an intolerable provocation against it. We have already seriously warned the South Korean authorities of consequences their wrong act of giving silent approval to the humans wastes wild moves will bring to the north-south relations.”
She added that, “We regard the maneuvers committed by the human wastes in the south as a serious provocation against our state and will look into corresponding action.
“Whatever decision we make and whatever actions we take, the responsibility for the consequences thereof will entirely rest with the South Korean authorities who stopped short of holding proper control of the dirty human scum.”
She concluded the statement by saying, “We can no longer remain an onlooker.”
Song Young-gil, who was elected the new chairman of the ruling Democratic Party Sunday, introduced the anti-leaflet bill in June, within a month of threatening remark from Kim Yo-jong. Kim labeled defectors in South Korea as “human scum” and “mongrel dogs” for sending items across the border. Conservatives in South Korea criticized the bill, and often describe it as a submission to Kim Yo-jong’s order.
The North Korean government released three official statements over the weekend, including the one from Kim Yo-jong, which criticized the United States and South Korea. Experts in Seoul said it was very rare to see three statements from key officials in such a short period of time.
On May 2, North Korea’s Foreign Ministry criticized a recent statement by the U.S. Department of State.
“The U.S. State Department spokesperson in a press release about a ‘ceremony’ sponsored by anti-DPRK human rights organizations on April 28 smeared the statewide anti-epidemic measures in the DPRK for protecting the life and security of the people from the worldwide pandemic as ‘human rights abuses’ and even faulted the dignity of our supreme leadership in the grave politically-motivated provocation.
“The Human rights issue touted by the U.S. is a political trick designed to destroy the ideology and social system in the DPRK.” It added that North Korea has warned the United States enough for it to understand that it will suffer if it provokes Pyongyang. “The U.S. will surely and certainly regret for acting lightly, defying our warnings.”
On April 28, the State Department released a statement titled “On the Occasion of North Korea Freedom Week.” The statement read, “We are appalled by the increasingly draconian measures the regime has taken, including shoot-to-kill orders at the North Korea-China border, to tighten control of its people under the guise of fighting COVID-19.” It added that, “The civilized world has no place for such brutality, and the international community must continue to speak out.”
The State Department also said it will continue to raise awareness of North Korea’s egregious human rights situation and support access to independent information for the North Korean people. “We also honor the courage of the North Korean defector and human rights community and will always support their efforts to shine a spotlight on these grave injustices.”
