Controversy over South Korea’s so-called anti-leaflet law is continuing to grow domestically and overseas. The South Korean government insists that it will strictly enforce the law, while international human rights experts express concern over both the law itself and how Seoul is playing into Pyongyang’s plans.
Park Sang-hak, a North Korea defector known for his years of leafleting campaigns, said his organization floated 10 giant balloons carrying leaflets, reading material critical of the Kim Jong-un regime, and 5,000 $1 bills during the last week of April. South Korean police raided the office Mr. Park’s anti-North Korea activist group on May 6. Police said they executed a search and seizure warrant at the Seoul office of Fighters for Free North Korea, as Mr. Park’s group is known.
The police are expected to apply the 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 of the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act that makes sending leaflets to North Korea a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or by a fine not exceeding 30 million won ($26,845).
The South Korean government continues to emphasize that the law should be implemented as it was amended to protect the safety of people residing near the border. “We cannot allow an illegal act threatening people’s daily lives,” said Jeon Hae-cheol, Minister of the Interior and Safety, on May 7. “People continued to call for strict measures against leafleting campaigns to the north as it weakens inter-Korean peace cooperation and threatens people’s safety in the border area by creating unnecessary tension.”
He added that, “It is a significant violation of the law to send leaflets after it was legally finalized to state that sending leaflets is a crime that can be criminally prosecuted.” He argued that the law should be strictly implemented to prevent such cases in the future.
Kim Boo-kyum, South Korea’s prime minister nominee, also emphasized that sending leaflets to North Korea does not help the “Korean peace process.” He argued that “it clearly violates the Panmunjom Declaration and other agreements with North Korea that we came to agreement through a difficult process.”
Kim, a four-term lawmaker and former interior minister, also said, “I cannot understand why they persist with that method [leaflets] regarding the North Korean human rights issues.” He added that they (the activists) should realize that their activity can threaten other people residing in South Korea.
North Korea, which has strongly opposed the leaflets, came up with another strange argument to urge its citizens to stay away from material sent from South Korea. North Korea’s official newspaper urged people to stay alert against coronavirus infections through “strange objects” floating in the air on May 6. “Even when we come across a strange object flying in the wind, we must consider them as a possible route of transmission of the malicious virus rather than a natural phenomenon,” the North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper said.
The article came as conservatives in South Korea criticized the anti-leaflet law as a submission to orders from Kim Yo-jong, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un’s sister. The anti-leaflet bill was introduced in June, within a month of threatening remarks from Kim Yo-jong.
She labeled defectors in South Korea as “human scum” and “mongrel dogs” for sending items across the border. After Park Sang-hak’s recent launch, she released another statement that read “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.”
Kim Chang-yong, Commissioner General of the Korean National Police Agency, ordered police to investigate the issue within a day of Kim’s remarks. Some conservative media argued this violates the police law, which bans the Commissioner General from directing individual cases.
Human rights experts and former officials in the United States criticized the South Korean police for investigating the leaflet case so soon after Kim Yo-jong’s remarks.
“I think South Korea does not look good if they respond so immediately and give the impression that they are frightened of the North, or that they are so anxious to make a deal with the North that if North Korea threatens them, they immediately jump,” said Robert King, former Special Envoy for North Korea Human Rights Issues at the U.S. Department of State, in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) on May 7. “It undermines their ability to negotiate with the North.”
King argued that the South Korean government’s response is exactly what the North wants.
“North Koreans make noise about this story of leaflets being flown over and immediately the South Koreans issue a tough statement from the police that they’re going to investigate the group that is sending the leaflets. This is exactly what the North Koreans want. They want everybody to think if they growl, everybody will be frightened, and that’s exactly what the South Koreans are unfortunately playing into. We’re so anxious to make a deal with the North Koreans that if they growl, we will immediately ‘jump.’”
Roberta Cohen, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Rights in the State Department, also argued that responding to Kim Yo-jong’s remarks makes South Korea look bad. “Kim Yo-jong is certainly not in charge of South Korea’s government or police and has no right to be prompting them and making them issue orders in response to her anger,” she said. “So this line of action, this line of response, because she has said something, she has complained, is most unfortunate. It makes one wonder who’s in charge.”
Suzanne Scholte, Vice Co-Chair of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, said that the international community should be doing more things that North Koreans complain about, because they are things that Pyongyang acknowledge as its weakness.
“Whatever Kim Yo-jong complains about, that is a direct sign of what we should be doing more of,” she said. “So, it is really a shame that they [South Korea] are continuing to comply with the requests of the DPRK, because we should be doing more balloon launches, not less, and we should be sending in more radios so people can listen.”
Scholte recently testified before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, a bipartisan congressional caucus, regarding the anti-leaflet law in South Korea.
