hankyoreh

Park Sang-hak, the leader of the group Fighters for a Free North Korea, holds a sign attached to a balloon carrying propaganda leaflets that he and his group flew across the border into North Korea on June 6, 2024. The text reads: “The enemy of the people Kim Jong-un sent refuse and trash to the people of the Republic of Korea, but defectors send truth and love to our North Korean compatriots!” (courtesy of Park)

The Hankyoreh has confirmed that the Ministry of Unification mobilized its resources to seek legal grounds to hamper efforts by local governments and National Assembly lawmakers to crack down on propaganda leaflet launches into North Korea as unconstitutional and illegal. The Unification Ministry was shown to have inquired into ways to enable the private individuals behind the launches to fight crackdowns by local governments. 

According to several sources who are familiar with the Unification Ministry’s affairs, the ministry consulted a law firm and a professional jurist at the end of last month to review the legal legitimacy of claims that attempts by authorities in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to crack down on leaflet launches were unconstitutional or illegal. The ministry specifically asked about legal justifications for labeling the crackdowns illegal or unconstitutional.  

The Unification Ministry consulted the legal experts directly after Gyeonggi Province commissioned the Gyeonggi Bukbu Provincial Police and Paju Police Station to investigate Fighters for a Free North Korea, the group of activist defectors who launched the leaflets, on June 21. This was also the day when Paju Mayor Kim Gyeong-il held a press conference, during which he designated Paju a “danger zone” and announced that he was considering measures to ban all leaflet launches. 

The department within the Unification Ministry that consulted the legal firm and jurist to secure “legal ammunition” against efforts to block the leaflet launches is the same department that handles North Korean human rights issues. The Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Office was created under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, which nixed the existing department dedicated to humanitarian cooperation. It was a symbolic rebranding of the department’s mission, shifting the focus from inter-Korean cooperation to pointing out North Korea’s human rights abuses. 

People in protective suits clean up trash scattered in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, from a North Korean balloon floated over the border on June 2, 2024. (courtesy of the ROK Joint Chiefs of Staff)

During its consultations, the Unification Ministry asked for a legal defense for central government departments as well as “legal measures that can be taken by private individuals” against local government crackdowns. This constitutes an overstep of official jurisdiction by the administration. The revelations suggest that the Ministry of Unification may have been planning on securing legal ammunition and providing it to the individuals launching leaflets across the inter-Korean border who are subject to crackdowns for use in fighting the local authorities. 

The Unification Ministry also requested legal ammunition to use against Democratic Party lawmakers Park Jee-hye (Uijeongbu A) and Yoon Hu-duk (Paju A), who each sponsored bills to amend the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act to put restrictions on leaflet launches. In its consultations with the law firm and jurist, the ministry asked for the legal grounds to label such amendments “unconstitutional and illegal.” 

On Sept. 26 of last year, articles in the Development of Inter-Korean Relations Act that prohibited leaflet distribution were struck down by the Constitutional Court, which declared that such prohibition constituted “excessive limitations” on freedom of speech. The amendments proposed by Park and Yoon are attempts to re-establish the legal legitimacy of preventing and restricting leaflet launches. 

In its preoccupations with stocking up on legal ammunition to block efforts to prohibit leaflet launches, the Unification Ministry seems to have forgotten its original mission of relieving inter-Korean conflict and tensions, which are continually escalating in the face of the back-and-forth launches of leaflets and waste balloons. It has ignored its obligation to allay the anxieties and fears of the Korean people who suffer the consequences of elevated tensions. 

For instance, the Unification Ministry was shown to have not taken part in formal consultations with relevant government departments, including the National Police Agency and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, regarding the issue of leaflet launches into the North. According to Kim Joon-hyung, a lawmaker with the Rebuilding Korea Party, both the National Police Agency and the Interior Ministry have stated that the Unification Ministry has taken part in no formal consultations regarding the leaflets launches for the past year. 

Members of Gyeonggi Province’s special judicial police force survey areas along the inter-Korean border that are expected to serve as launch sites for propaganda leaflets into North Korea on June 11, 2024. (courtesy of Gyeonggi provincial government)

When questioned by the Hankyoreh about the matter, the Unification Ministry acknowledged that it had consulted legal experts. 

“We simply asked for a legal professional’s opinion on a matter that could become the subject of a legal debate. The consultation was not held to deduce a specific outcome. The legal professionals we consulted have their reputation to protect, so it makes no sense for them to do such a thing,” a Unification Ministry insider said in response to the Hankyoreh’s inquiry. 

A former senior government official told the Hankyoreh, “Despite the Constitutional Court’s verdict, the leaflet launches [and the conflict they cause] are a clear and present danger, and require additional legal measures for sensible prevention.” 

“The Unification Ministry’s actions are a violation of the spirit of the Constitutional Court’s verdict,” the source added.

By Lee Je-hun, senior staff writer

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