Yoon Hee-sook: "Leaflet Distribution Ban Law Was Meant to Get a Response from North Korea... Ruling Party's Legislative Intent Is 'False'"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Yoon Hee-sook, a member of the People Power Party, criticized the statement of Jeong Se-hyun, chairman of the Presidential Committee on Democratic Peaceful Unification, regarding the passage of the law banning the distribution of leaflets to North Korea (Amendment to the Act on the Development of Inter-Korean Relations), saying "The ruling party's legislative intent is false."

On the 25th, Representative Yoon said on Facebook, "To pass the law, they inserted a plausible goal of 'the safety of residents in border areas,' which is a restriction of basic rights, but now it has been revealed that there was another goal that was not disclosed to the public," expressing this view.

On the 23rd, Chairman Jeong made a remark to the effect of "Since the leaflet issue has been resolved, North Korea should reciprocate from the New Year" during a special talk titled 'A Time of Opportunity for Peace on the Korean Peninsula' held at the Inter-Korean Summit Headquarters in Samcheong-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.

Regarding this, Representative Yoon pointed out, "This means the law was passed hoping for reciprocation from North Korea, thus officially exposing the falsehood of the legislative intent that 'the freedom of expression of other citizens is inevitably restricted to protect the lives and safety of residents in border areas.'"

She mentioned that when the ruling party proposed the amendment to the Act on the Development of Inter-Korean Relations, they cited Article 37 of the Constitution, which states, "The freedom of expression of citizens should be guaranteed in principle, but if there is a possibility of causing serious danger to the life or body of citizens, it can be restricted by law," and said, "if citizens' basic rights must be restricted for other policy goals, the conflicting goals must be carefully weighed." She criticized, "They must explain what was planned to be exchanged, what grounds they had to judge that it was important enough to trample on our citizens' basic rights, and why they did not properly disclose this during the legislative process."

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