Balloon carrying garbage sent by North Korea is seen in Jeongseon County, Gangwon Province, June 10. Yonhap

Civic groups and border residents urged the government Monday to restrict activists from launching anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets into North Korea, citing concern it could provoke Pyongyang to send trash-carrying balloons into South Korea again.

The plea came as officials of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), a major civic group, border residents and opposition lawmakers held a discussion at the National Assembly to explore ways to reduce inter-Korean tensions.

On four occasions from late May through early June, North Korea launched more than a thousand balloons carrying trash and manure over to South Korea, apparently in response to South Korean activists' cross-border leaflet launches.

Those balloons flew as far south as the southeastern county of Geochang and damaged a plastic greenhouse and the windscreen of a vehicle, but police chief Yoon Hee-keun has said that such campaigns by South Korean activists cannot be stopped under the current law.

Lee Tae-ho, head of the PSPD's peaceful disarmament center, said that such campaigns "could threaten border residents' rights to peaceful and safe living," calling for their restriction.

"Reckless dangerous border-area propaganda acts that provoke the opposite side, even by a private organization, should be restricted," he said.

Hong Min, a researcher at the Korea Institute for National Unification, stressed that propaganda leaflets and balloons, historically used as tools in modern warfare, cannot be recognized as a means of freedom of expression.

Border residents and others participating in the debate also called for legislation requiring advance notification for leaflet campaigns and other restricting measures.

Ahn Jae-young, a village head of the border town of Heyri in Paju, urged the National Assembly to "fundamentally block leaflet sending" by promptly addressing shortfalls in a law that was struck down by the Constitutional Court last year.

In September, the court struck down the 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. (Yonhap)

（作者：新闻中心）