Effort to Stop Activist Balloon Launches with Aviation Law Fails

If the balloon launches were stopped by this aviation law than everyone who releases a balloon in Korea should be arrested as well:

The South Korean government has concluded that it can’t stop the scattering of anti-North Korea leaflets with the Aviation Act, an official said Thursday.

Those opposed to the spread of leaflets via balloons have argued that the legislation may provide a legal ground to tackle the civilian campaign, which they say hampers inter-Korean ties.

The law bans any unauthorized flight in the Demilitarized Zone and other controlled areas.

The transpiration ministry, which is in charge of the matter, concluded that the legislation can’t be applied to the activists’ actions, according to the unification ministry official

“The large-sized balloons used to scatter the leaflets don’t have any device for land-based control, meaning they are not considered ultra-small flight apparatuses,” the official told reporters on background.

He added there is no change in the government’s stance that it has no legal grounds to block the spread of the leaflets across the heavily armed border.

A group of conservative activists here revealed plans to send leaflets critical of the North’s leadership and system into the North from Imjingak, a park on the border, on Saturday.

The leaflet issue is a pretext for North Korea to avoid agreed-upon high-level talks with South Korea. [Yonhap]

This is just another example of how the engagement crowd wants to appease North Korean demands for the sake of talks where the North Koreans than make even more demands for little or nothing in return.  As long as the appeasement crowd continues to try and push the Park administration to give into North Koreans demands for little or nothing in return they will continue to make them.