South Korea's Constitutional Court strikes down law banning anti-Pyongyang leafl

27/9/2023 7:02

        South Korea’s Constitutional Court on Tuesday struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech.
        
        The ruling came in response to a complaint filed by North Korean defector-activists in the South. They included Park Sang-hak, who has been a frequent target of North Korean government anger for his yearslong campaign of flying leaflets across the border with balloons.
        
        The law was crafted by the previous liberal government in Seoul that desperately pushed for inter-Korean engagement.
        
        It made leafleting a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine $22,000.
        
        The law passed in December 2020, six months after the North expressed its displeasure over the leaflets by blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in the North Korean border town of Kaesong.