As I've noted before, there's a long history of balloon propaganda across Korea's DMZ. In recent years most of the activity has come from North Korean defectors and other activists in the South sending balloons filled with leaflets and memory sticks containing news programmes and films to the beleaguered denizens of the Kim family dystopia. North Koreans have in the past been warned against touching the contents of the balloons - "They have planted bombs, so do not touch the leaflets. You have to use a stick (to move them),” and “They have cancer causing agents, so don’t go right up to them or your body will suffer.”
The whole business made the news in June, when the Supreme Leader's sister Kim Yo Jong entered the fray with a trademark rant about the "mongrel dogs" engaged in such "evil conduct", and calling on the South Korean government to do something about it:
Human scum little short of wild animals who betrayed their own homeland are engrossed in such unbecoming acts to imitate men. They are sure to be called mongrel dogs as they bark in where they should not.
Now that the mongrel dogs are doing others harm, it is time to bring their owners to account.
I would like to ask the south Korean authorities if they are ready to take care of the consequences of evil conduct done by the rubbish-like mongrel dogs who took no scruple to slander us while faulting the "nuclear issue" in the meanest way at the most untimely time.
I detest those who feign ignorance or encourage more than those who move to do others harm.
The south Korean authorities must be aware of the articles of the Panmunjom Declaration and the agreement in the military field in which both sides agreed to ban all hostile acts including leaflet-scattering in the areas along the Military Demarcation Line.
There should be a certain degree of discretion, however deep the north-south hostile relations are and however much hostility the south harbors against its fellow countrymen in the north.
It is hard to understand how such sordid and wicked act of hostility is tolerated in the south at a time as now.
Incredibly the South Korean government, desperate as ever to appease the North, has now yielded to Kim Yo Jong's demands:
South Korea’s parliament has approved contentious legislation criminalizing the flying of propaganda leaflets by balloon toward North Korea, despite fierce criticism that the country is sacrificing freedom of expression to improve ties with the rival North.
The legislation passed with the support of 187 lawmakers, mostly governing party members who support President Moon Jae-in’s policy of engagement with North Korea. Outnumbered opposition lawmakers didn’t attend the vote after their attempt at delaying the balloting with nonstop speeches was foiled by governing party lawmakers and their allies who used their three-fifths supermajority to halt the speeches in a separate vote.
It was the first time that South Korea’s parliament has passed a bill formally banning civilians from floating anti-North Korea leaflets across the tense border. South Korea has previously banned such activities only during sensitive times, and has normally allowed activists to exercise their freedom of speech despite repeated protests from North Korea.
Activists and defectors from North Korea have for years used huge helium-filled balloons to carry leaflets criticizing North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and human rights record, USB sticks with information about world news, and US dollars. Observers say North Korean leader Kim Jong-un likely saw the leafleting as a threat to his absolute rule over his 25 million people, who mostly have little access to outside information.
Lawmakers aligned with Moon say the legislation is intended to avoid unnecessarily provoking North Korea, to ensure the safety of people who live near the border, and to secure stable relations with the North. Opponents accuse Moon of sympathizing excessively with North Korea or yielding to North Korean threats over the leafleting.
“This is a law that will block the flow of South Korea’s great values, the spirit of democracy, freedom and equality, to North Korea,” conservative opposition lawmaker Tae Yongho said during a 10-hour speech. “It’s a law aimed at joining hands with Kim Jong Un and leaving North Korean residents enslaved for good.”
The move is slammed in an editorial in South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, where they recall the part that the sharing of West German culture and news played in the collapse of East Germany:
Even before German reunification in 1990, East Germans had...become to some extent accustomed to West German news and culture. One incident that epitomized this occurred on June 7, 1987 when David Bowie put on a concert in front of the Reichstag just West of the Berlin Wall. Young East Germans gathered to listen on the other side of the wall, and East German police attempted to muffle the music by revving up the engines of their squad cars. But the young East Germans, who already knew Bowie's songs by heart, fought back by singing along in unison. When police arrested hundreds of people who had listened to the concert, West German reporters in the East were quick to report the incident. The East German government claimed the reports were fabricated, but the people had already tuned in to the western broadcasts and knew what was happening.
This would not have been possible if West Germany had passed a law like South Korea's latest regulation banning the dispatch of propaganda leaflets to North Korea. The ruling party earlier this week railroaded through the shameful law that not only bans the dispatch of propaganda leaflets to the North but effectively blocks any form of outside information from being sent to the reclusive state. Even USB memory sticks are banned. The international community has condemned the law, saying it violates freedom of expression, while many foreign countries now view the South Korean government as increasingly oppressive.
Opposition People Power Party lawmaker Thae Yong-ho, who is a high-profile North Korean defector, said the law "consigns North Koreans to perpetual servitude" and is the first case of "the South and North joining hands to block the eyes, ears and five senses of the North Korean people."...If West Germany had made such a law for fear of agitating East Germany, young people from both sides could not have sung Bowie's songs aloud in unison as they yearned for reunification.
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