Photo : YONHAP News
The rival camps clashed Tuesday during the parliamentary inspection of the unification ministry over the issue of North Korean defectors sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into the North via balloon.
During the audit at the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the ruling People Power Party(PPP) maintained that the campaign falls under the right to freedom of expression, while the main opposition Democratic Party(DP) argued that the government is handling the matter in a passive manner.
PPP Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon said that because it is civic groups and not the government sending the propaganda leaflets, the activity falls within the senders’ constitutional right to freedom of expression, adding that if the government violated that right it would be violating the principles of liberal democracy.
But DP Rep. Kim Young-bae said launching the leaflets from border regions violates the Aviation Security Act, which bans the unauthorized launch of unmanned balloons.
The lawmaker denounced the unification ministry for failing to abide by the rules and for neglecting its duties.
Unification minister Kim Yung-ho said the law banning the sending of anti-Pyongyang leaflets into North Korea has been ruled unconstitutional, stressing that the defectors’ intentions cannot be compared to the intent behind the North’s trash balloon campaign.