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The government is looking for legal grounds to stop activists sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea since they have so incensed the North as to threaten a new ice age in relations. Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun on Monday told reporters the government has in the meantime asked civic groups to refrain from continuing the activity.
He said the government is seeking legal grounds since the leaflets ¡°are harming inter-Korean relations.¡± It is apparently investigating whether it can prevent the civic groups on charges of violating gas safety laws -- the leaflets are typically attached to hydrogen balloons and then float across the border. But experts say the law should not apply to those involved in sending the propaganda leaflets since it only temporarily prohibits use of high-pressure gas when it is feared it might cause damage.
Since Oct. 2, when it first complained the leaflets in an inter-Korean military meeting, North Korea has threatened to cut all cross-border communication.
The activists have been sending the leaflets since 2003. They are typically critical of the North Korean regime, and contain messages to the effect that leader Kim Jong-il, suffered a stroke or was feasting when 3 million North Koreans starved to death. Recently they have come with U.S. and Chinese banknotes attached.
Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for Free North Korea, said, "We've been sending leaflets to the North since the Roh Moo-hyun administration. It's strange that they said nothing at the time but suddenly made an issue of it today. And it's also strange that the Lee Myung-bak administration, which is advocating human rights for North Koreans, is trying to ban us from doing it."
If they fly with the wind, the balloons can reach an area near Pyongyang. South Korean civic groups are reportedly sending about 10 million copies of leaflets across the border every year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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