South Korea faces dilemma over anti-North
leaflets as ties thaw
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[May 05, 2018]
By Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang
SEOUL/PAJU, South Korea (Reuters) - Days
after a historic inter-Korean summit Lee Min-bok, a defector who has
been flying anti-Pyongyang leaflets into the North for 15 years,
received a call from an official at Seoul's Unification Ministry urging
him to halt his balloon campaign.
It was a plea by South Korea not to jeopardize the recent thaw,
engineered by the leaders of the two Koreas who agreed during last
week's summit to cease all hostile acts along the border - including the
distribution of leaflets - from May 1.
On Saturday, police prevented a planned release of balloons by a
defector group after a confrontation with anti-leaflet protesters.
For Lee, the campaign is personal. He says reading such leaflets as a
young man in the North brought an "awakening moment" in 1990 that helped
him realize how oppressive and destitute his homeland was at a time when
the South was emerging as an economic powerhouse. In 1995, he escaped to
South Korea.
"I really believed that Kim Il Sung was the center of the world and he
was making everything right and great for us," Lee said, referring to
North Korea's founding father, the grandfather of current leader Kim
Jong Un.
"Realizing what I had learned, heard and read were all lies, I decided
to defect to the South to live with the truth."
Lee, who launched his first batch of balloons in 2003 and has since
dispatched more than 300 million, runs one of several defector-led civic
groups that regularly send leaflets across the border carrying messages
critical of Kim and human rights abuses in North Korea.
Their campaign now poses a thorny dilemma for Seoul, which is striving
to keep up the momentum for inter-Korean reconciliation after a decade
of confrontation amid the North's growing nuclear weapons and missile
programs.
Pyongyang has in the past blamed Seoul for failing to stop previous
leaflet launches, calling them "an act of war". The two Koreas even
traded fire in 2014 after the North's military shot machine guns at
balloons launched by defector activists.
LAUNCH BLOCKED
In the call from the Unification Ministry, the official repeatedly
pleaded for an end to balloon launches, promising support if his group
switched to other activities aimed at improving human rights in North
Korea, according to Lee.
The ministry was not available for comment on the call, but on Friday it
issued a statement urging civic groups to halt leaflet launches, which
it said would violate the spirit of the agreement made at the summit and
heighten military tensions and safety concerns.
Some South Koreans also think the balloon campaign should end.
"Customers stopped visiting our town after North Korea threatened to
shoot the balloons," said Kim Hyung-do, who runs a chicken soup
restaurant in the border city of Paju.
"The mood between the two Koreas has a big impact on our lives. I hope
they won't send flyers and throw cold water on this good mood after the
summit."
Despite the pleas, a group of North Korean defectors flocked to Paju on
Saturday to fly balloons into the North.
The group prepared 150,000 leaflets, 1,000 $1 bills and 500 booklets
authored by another defector on South Korea's dramatic rise from the
ashes of the 1950-53 Korean War, said its leader Park Sang-haak.
"We are carried away by Kim Jong Un's sudden deceitful peace offensive,
but just a while ago he blackmailed us and the whole world with nuclear
and missile provocations, while killing his own family members and
executives," Park said.
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An activist who opposes releasing balloons containing leaflets
denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, is dragged out of an
anti-North Korea civic group, near the demilitarized zone in Paju,
South Korea, May 5, 2018. REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji
About 150 residents of Paju and members of a small, progressive
party staged a protest against the leaflet launch, and one protester
ran into Park as he gave a speech, prompting police to intervene.
"I risked my life to cross the border. You can't stop me," a
colleague of Park furiously shouted at the man, drawing applause
from other defectors.
The launch was eventually called off as police blocked the truck
carrying the balloons from entering the site. Local police were not
immediately available for comment.
LEAFLET WAR
The two Koreas have waged rival leaflet campaigns for decades.
The South's military used to launch anti-North flyers across the
demilitarized zone, but the program ended in 2010, a defense
ministry official said.
Defector groups continued the campaign, sending, along with the
flyers, $1 bills, mini radios, instant food such ramen noodles and
USB sticks containing South Korean dramas and news.
Pyongyang has also used balloons to send its own propaganda
leaflets, which typically feature military threats and satirical
images of South Korean and U.S. leaders.
"I remember picking up fliers praising Kim Il Sung from the
playground and mountain near my home when I was in elementary
school, and we were told to drop them at a police box and get
pencils as a reward," said Kim Chang-hwan, a 35-year-old book editor
in Seoul.
"It was sort of scary as we were taught that those things were very
bad, but when I saw them again during my military service, I would
just laugh it off."
Defector and human rights campaigners say the South Korean
government cannot obstruct civilian activities that they say are
subject to freedom of speech guaranteed by the constitution.
In 2015, a local court dismissed a lawsuit filed by a group of
residents to prevent Park's leaflet campaign, citing freedom of
expression.
But in a separate 2016 case, the Supreme Court ruled the government
could limit the civic group's activities due to residents' safety
concerns.
President Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer, took office
last May, pledging to re-engage the North. As an opposition
lawmaker, Moon co-sponsored a resolution calling for a halt to
leaflet launches in 2014.
"The agreement from the summit doesn't have binding authority over
what the people do or don't do," said Kim Tae-hoon, a member of
Hanbyun, an association of lawyers for human rights and unification.
"And it can't undercut the universal value of human rights."
(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Alex
Richardson)
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