ID :
31085
Wed, 11/19/2008 - 15:53
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/31085
The shortlink copeid
Gov't vows to get tough on anti-North propaganda leaflets
By Lee Chi-dong
SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korean authorities decided Wednesday to crackdown on local activists spreading anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the inter-Korean border in an apparent bid to appease an angered Pyongyang.
"The government will make aggressive efforts to persuade civic groups to refrain
from scattering leaflets. The related authorities will cope with such activity
within legal boundaries," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said,
briefing reporters on the results of an inter-agency meeting on the issue held
earlier in the day.
The meeting was presided over by Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho and was
joined by officials from the presidential office, the prime minister's office,
the state intelligence agency, police, foreign ministry, and defense ministry.
Undaunted by the government's move, however, civic groups announced they will fly
another set of 100,000 leaflets into the North on Thursday from a border town in
Gyeonggi Province.
The spreading of the leaflets has proven to be a major headache for South Korean
officials seeking a thaw in inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang has fiercely
protested the leaflets and has made several retaliatory threats against Seoul.
Conservative activists here, mainly family members of those abducted by the
North, often fly balloons into North Korea laden with leaflets printed with
messages including statements on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's reported
illness and calls for North Koreans to defect to the South. They have snubbed the
South Korean government's repeated requests to halt the activity which has
provoked the North Korean regime.
In protest, the North's military announced last week that it will strictly
control border crossings starting from Dec. 1.
The South Korean government announced earlier that it would seek legal means to
bar the spreading of such leaflets.
"We are reviewing various ways," the ministry spokesman said. "We are looking for
legal grounds."
The government's efforts are apparently aimed at normalizing inter-Korean
relations, which have rapidly soured since the launch of the conservative Lee
Myung-bak administration.
SEOUL, Nov. 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korean authorities decided Wednesday to crackdown on local activists spreading anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the inter-Korean border in an apparent bid to appease an angered Pyongyang.
"The government will make aggressive efforts to persuade civic groups to refrain
from scattering leaflets. The related authorities will cope with such activity
within legal boundaries," Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said,
briefing reporters on the results of an inter-agency meeting on the issue held
earlier in the day.
The meeting was presided over by Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho and was
joined by officials from the presidential office, the prime minister's office,
the state intelligence agency, police, foreign ministry, and defense ministry.
Undaunted by the government's move, however, civic groups announced they will fly
another set of 100,000 leaflets into the North on Thursday from a border town in
Gyeonggi Province.
The spreading of the leaflets has proven to be a major headache for South Korean
officials seeking a thaw in inter-Korean relations. Pyongyang has fiercely
protested the leaflets and has made several retaliatory threats against Seoul.
Conservative activists here, mainly family members of those abducted by the
North, often fly balloons into North Korea laden with leaflets printed with
messages including statements on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's reported
illness and calls for North Koreans to defect to the South. They have snubbed the
South Korean government's repeated requests to halt the activity which has
provoked the North Korean regime.
In protest, the North's military announced last week that it will strictly
control border crossings starting from Dec. 1.
The South Korean government announced earlier that it would seek legal means to
bar the spreading of such leaflets.
"We are reviewing various ways," the ministry spokesman said. "We are looking for
legal grounds."
The government's efforts are apparently aimed at normalizing inter-Korean
relations, which have rapidly soured since the launch of the conservative Lee
Myung-bak administration.
