Police chief asserts inability to stop activists' anti

The national police chief Yoon Hee-keun speaks at a ceremony to declare a vision of crime prevention at Korean National Police Agency in Seodaemun district, May 14. Yonhap

South Korean activists cannot be stopped from launching anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into North Korea because it would amount to restricting their freedom of expression, the national police chief said Monday.

The remark by National Police Agency Commissioner General Yoon Hee-keun came a day after North Korea sent hundreds of balloons carrying trash and manure over to South Korea, the latest in a series of such campaigns, apparently in response to South Korean activists' cross-border leaflet launches.

Questions have been raised about whether the police can deter or block South Korean activists from their leaflet operations, resorting to the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers, which mandates police to warn or restrain individuals from acts liable to cause human or property damage.

The national police chief said during a press briefing that the law cannot be a basis for blocking the activists because it is unclear whether their campaigns pose urgent or serious threats, as required under the law.

"I think it's unclear whether the trash-carrying balloons (from North Korea) would constitute an urgent and grave threat to the lives and bodies of the public, which is the prerequisite for restricting them under the law," the police chief noted.

In September, the Constitutional Court struck down a law banning leaflet launches by South Koreans, saying it excessively restricts the right to freedom of expression. Since then, Seoul's unification ministry has reaffirmed its stance not to urge civic groups to refrain from sending leaflets across the border.

Under the current law, a threat from North Korea should be specific enough, such as a shooting, for example, to warrant a police action to restrict the launching of leaflets by activists and civic groups, Yoon added.

Police will, however, wait and see if North Korea's campaign of sending trash-carrying balloons continues, and they will make a new decision if the campaign escalates to the point that it poses a serious threat, he said. (Yonhap)