By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Unification asked the prosecution to investigate two conservative civic groups that illegally sent balloons containing North Korean banknotes and anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border, the ministry's spokesman said Wednesday.
The measure came as the Abductees' Family Union (AFU) and the Fighters for Free North Korea (FFNK), a group of North Korean defectors in the South, have been sending the balloons across the Demilitarized Zone despite repeated government warnings.
``It has been confirmed that the two groups still have North Korean currency,'' the spokesman, Kim Ho-nyoun, said. ``It is against the law governing inter-Korean exchange and cooperation to bring in North Korean banknotes without state approval.''
Bringing North Korean currency here is allowed for trade purposes only. Those who violate the law may be sentenced to up to three years in prison, or fined up to 10 million won (approximately $6,800).
The activists illegally possessed the North Korean banknotes and used them, officials said.
The Seoul government has sought a legal basis to stop the anti-Pyongyang leaflet activity and reviewed the possibility that the activists might have violated law related to handling high-pressure gas, as they inflated the large balloons with hydrogen.
Members of the two organizations nonetheless sent balloons filled with 20,000 vinyl sheets containing propaganda leaflets and 30, 5,000 North Korean won notes over the border Monday on the 67th birthday of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il. A 5,000-won note is equivalent to one-and-a-half months salary for a North Korean worker.
They originally planned to send 100,000 leaflets and more than 400 notes but unfavorable winds hindered the plan.
The groups began the anti-Kim campaign last year in a bid to criticize his dictatorship and human rights abuses and call for the return of South Korean abductees.
Progressive civic groups expressed concerns over the activity, saying it could worsen inter-Korean relations.
The leaflets have been troublesome to the secretive state because they break the country's self-imposed information embargo.
The communist state urged Seoul to stop the activity during two rounds of military talks before it restricted border crossings Dec. 1.