Jung Se-hyun: "We Must Stop Leaflet Distribution to North Korea Even by Mobilizing the Military"

"To Prevent Anxiety Among Citizens in Border Areas"

Jung Se-hyun, Senior Vice Chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council

Jung Se-hyun, the Senior Vice Chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council (hereinafter referred to as the Minjupyeonghwa Advisory Council), a presidential advisory body, said on the 9th that the distribution of anti-North Korea leaflets by defector groups "must be stopped even if it requires mobilizing military and police forces."

On the same day, Senior Vice Chairman Jung appeared on KBS Radio's 'Kim Kyung-rae's Strongest Current Affairs' and said, "Residents in border areas are very anxious," adding, "Freedom does not mean doing whatever you want while making others feel uneasy."

He stated, "This is not about trying to appease North Korea," and argued, "The military can step in to ensure that citizens in border areas do not feel anxious."

Regarding North Korea's declaration on the 9th to cut all communication lines between the South and the North in response to the South Korean government's handling of the leaflet distribution, Senior Vice Chairman Jung explained, "The core issue is the dissatisfaction that has been building up over the South's failure to faithfully implement the April 27, 2018 Panmunjom Declaration, the September 19 Pyongyang Declaration, and subsequent military agreements, which was triggered this time by the leaflet (anti-North Korea leaflet) incident."

He reiterated, "(Even now, the government should) take legal measures to ban leaflets and, when such actions are forcibly carried out under the pretext of freedom of expression, stop them even if it requires mobilizing police or military forces."

He predicted, "North Korea says it will cut all telephone communication lines, but there is no need to go and plead with them not to do so," adding, "After some time passes, the lines will quietly be reconnected again."

Senior Vice Chairman Jung added, "If the National Assembly firmly establishes laws prohibiting leaflet distribution and actual enforcement actions are taken to prevent such behavior from recurring, the North will change its attitude toward the South."

Meanwhile, North Korea's state-run media, the Korean Central News Agency, reported on the same day that "from 12:00 on June 9, the communication lines between the North and South authorities maintained through the inter-Korean joint liaison office, the East-West Sea communication lines between the North and South military, the North-South communication test lines, and the direct communication lines between the Workers' Party Central Committee headquarters and the Blue House will be completely cut off and discarded."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.