People Power Party and People Party: "Unilateral Passage of Anti-North Korea Leaflet Law, an Unprecedented Submissive Incident... Will File Constitutional Review"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Members of the People Power Party and the People Party belonging to the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee condemned the ruling party's unilateral passage of the 'Law Prohibiting the Distribution of Leaflets to North Korea,' calling it an "unprecedented submissive incident."

On the 2nd, members of the People Power Party and the People Party issued a statement saying, "The act of prohibiting the distribution of leaflets to North Korea restricts the constitutional value of freedom of expression and is highly likely to be unconstitutional."

They pointed out, "There was a major problem from the very background of the proposal of the Law Prohibiting the Distribution of Leaflets to North Korea," and added, "On June 4th, Kim Yo-jong, First Deputy Director of the North Korean Workers' Party, demanded through a statement, 'Make a law to stop (the leaflet distribution),' and about four hours after the statement, the Ministry of Unification held an unscheduled briefing announcing that they were preparing a bill."

They said, "An unprecedented submissive incident occurred where even the government and National Assembly of the Republic of Korea moved at the word of Kim Yo-jong," and criticized, "The Law Prohibiting the Distribution of Leaflets to North Korea directly overturns the recommendation decided by the National Human Rights Commission in 2010 through a plenary session, which emphasized 'guaranteeing North Korean residents' right to access external information.'"

The lawmakers stated, "Experts who have distributed leaflets to North Korea for decades say that if the timing and location of distribution are not disclosed, it is absolutely safe, and many defectors have reported that they saw the leaflets and crossed over to the free Republic of Korea," adding, "In the bill subcommittee, our party proposed a reasonable alternative to prohibit the prior disclosure of the time and place of leaflet distribution rather than the unconstitutional approach of banning leaflet distribution, but it was not accepted."

They demanded, "Song Young-gil, chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, and Democratic Party members should immediately apologize for the unilateral forced passage of the Law Prohibiting the Distribution of Leaflets to North Korea," and warned, "If the passage of the law is not immediately stopped and withdrawn, we will consider all possible measures, including filing a constitutional review petition with the Constitutional Court."

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