Unification Minister
Kim Ha-joong |
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Unification has sought to work out a legal measure to stop civic groups here from sending propaganda leaflets to North Korea, which has elevated tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang, a ministry official said Monday.
The move comes as North Korea has kept calling for a halt to the sending of the leaflets, threatening to close down all overland passages and cut off direct telephone lines.
``We have consistently called for civic organizations to refrain from this activity and are reviewing a range of ways,'' ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters, refusing to elaborate.
The ministry has, for the most part, dealt with the anti-Pyongyang activity passively, noting that there were no legal grounds to stop or punish civic groups, which are mostly composed of North Korean defectors.
A North Korean defectors' association and several other organizations sent helium-filled balloons to North Korea with tens of thousands of leaflets containing criticism of the North's dictatorship and rumors of its leader's illness from the West Sea in early October.
The communist state warned in two rounds of working-level military talks that it might ``make a decisive decision'' if the groups continue.
Earlier, Unification Minister Kim Ha-joong promised to make an effort to solve the leaflet issue in a meeting with representatives of companies operating in a joint industrial complex in the North Korean city of Gaeseong.
The North's recent threat to restrict crossings through the inter-Korean border is expected to negatively affect the industrial site.
However, the ministry will have difficulty finding any legal basis for action because existing laws have no provisions to control the groups' actions.
A government official asking to remain anonymous said the government is checking whether the groups are violating any laws by using high-pressure gas to send up balloons and leaflets.
In addition to the effort to improve icy relations by solving the flier issue, the ministry is seeking to resume a tour program to Mt. Geumgang, in the North.
Tours to the scenic resort, which began exactly 10 years ago, have been suspended since a South Korean female tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier during a pre-dawn walk near the resort.
The incident remains unresolved as North Korea refused to cooperate in on-site investigations, claiming the victim was in a restricted military zone.
Kim said the government hopes to have talks to discuss ways to resume the tour program soon. But Pyongyang insisted that it will only restart the tour after the Oct. 4 inter-Korean agreement is implemented.
North Korea has refused to resume inter-Korean dialogue, demanding the implementation of accords signed in inter-Korean summits in 2000 and 2007.
According to the Korea Institute for National Unification, economic losses triggered by the four-month suspension are estimated at more than 100 billion won ($70.8 million).
ksy@koreatimes.co.kr
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경찰, 이태원 등 외국인 밀집지역 특별관리
