June 9 (UPI) -- A former South Korean unification minister says he supports a law banning the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
Lee Jong-seok, who served as unification minister under former President Roh Moo-hyun, said "bold measures" need to be taken against the activism of North Korean defectors, Yonhap reported Tuesday.
"The ruling [Democratic] Party and the government must strengthen laws against the distribution of propaganda leaflets to North Korea," Lee said at an event commemorating the June 15 Joint Declaration between North and South.
"Inter-Korea relations will come to an end during the Moon Jae-in administration, if we speak ambiguously."
Lee also said the South Korean president and Kim Jong Un agreed in the Panmunjom Declaration of April 27, 2018 that the leaflets, distributed by helium balloon near the border, were to be banned.
"It is the [South Korean] government's fault for failing to prevent the distribution of leaflets," Lee said Tuesday.
The former head of Seoul's unification ministry also dismissed notions that a leaflet ban would be capitulating to the North. Last week, senior North Korean official Kim Yo Jong had criticized defector activism; the South subsequently said anti-Pyongyang flyers are unhelpful for relations. South Korea's main opposition conservatives have said a leaflet ban would be unconstitutional and a violation of freedom of expression.
"Is the right to distribute leaflets worth risking our peace, the safety of our border residents?" Lee said.
Lee also said it "would be sufficient" for the South to provide as much as $200 million in medical assistance to the North, if Pyongyang agrees Seoul can help with the facilities of Pyongyang General Hospital, currently under construction.
Jeong Se-hyun, executive vice chairman of the National Unification Advisory Council and former unification minister under Presidents Roh and Kim Dae-jung, told local television network JTBC the anti-Pyongyang leaflets are "very provocative, from the North's point of view."
Jeong ruled out passing an anti-leaflet law in the immediate term on Tuesday.
North Korea released a video condemning defectors and leaflets on Monday.
