South Korea’s unification minister pick hints lifting ban on flying anti-North propaganda leaflet balloons

Kwon Young-se called the measure imposed by the outgoing administration a violation of the right to free speech

Pyongyang has in the past threatened to attack Seoul over the propaganda efforts that were banned in 2020

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North Korean defectors and South Korean activists launch helium balloons carrying propaganda leaflets in Paju, South Korea. File photo: AP

Published: 1:14pm, 14 Apr 2022

South Korean official likely to oversee North Korean ties said on Thursday he opposed a ban on sending propaganda into Pyongyang, signalling the possible return to the skies of leaflet-laden balloons that infuriate its neighbour.

Kwon Young-se, nominated for the post of unification minister in a new conservative government, said he believed a ban on people sending propaganda, introduced by the outgoing liberal government as it tried to improve ties with the North, was a violation of the right to free speech.

“I thought legally regulating such activities was constitutionally problematic,” Kwon told reporters.

North Korean defectors and activists in the South had for decades sent balloons carrying leaflets floating across the tightly guarded border between the two Koreas.

They also sent food, medicine, money, mini radios and USB sticks loaded with South Korean news and dramas via balloons and plastic bottles on border waterways.

North Korea, which is still technically at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, has in the past threatened to attack Seoul over the balloons.