The call by South Korea’s newly elected President Lee Jae-myung for a halt to the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets signals what analysts see as a potential major policy shift towards easing inter-Korean tensions.
The Unification Ministry on Monday said it was “strongly urging” civic groups to stop sending anti-North Korea propaganda leaflets across the border into the North.
“Such actions raise tensions on the Korean peninsula and may threaten the lives and safety of residents near the border. Therefore, we strongly request a halt to leaflet launches,” its spokesman Koo Byoung-sam said.
His comments followed a fresh launch of leaflets earlier this month by relatives of South Koreans abducted during the Cold War. Such acts of protest have long been tolerated or even encouraged by conservative administrations in Seoul.
Under impeached former president Yoon Suk-yeol, these launches were defended as an exercise of constitutionally guaranteed free speech. But the new government of liberal President Lee appears to be charting a different course.
“This is the first step by the Lee government seeking to restore mutual trust between the North and the South,” Dongguk University emeritus professor Koh Yu-hwan told This Week in Asia.
