ROK Foreign Minister Defends Criminalizing Human Rights Activists

Here is the ROK Foreign Minister defending the criminalizing of human rights activists that have been sending leaflets to North Korea:

Earlier this week, the National Assembly passed the bill that prevents mainly North Korean defectors and human rights activists from flying propaganda leaflets or other materials critical of the Kim Jong-un regime over the border into the North. The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea claim the new law will help protect residents in border regions and ease cross-border tension.

“Because this is happening in a very sensitive area, the most militarized zone in the whole world with people living right next to the border area,” Kang said in an interview with CNN.

Citing a 2014 cross-border gunfire exchange and the demolition of an inter-Korean liaison office in June, which she claimed were due to the leaflets, she added, “So in an area, highly militarily tense area, anything can go wrong and lead to even bigger clashes. And the people living near the border have been asking that these activities stop for years.” 

The foreign minister admitted that there was an argument denouncing the law as restricting freedom of expression, but she also said this could be limited in certain cases.

“Freedom of expression, I think, is absolutely a vital human right. But it’s not absolute. It can be limited according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). But it has to be by law. It has to be limited in scope. And it is limited in scope. It is only used when these acts pose harm or pose danger to the life and the security of our people,” Kang said.

Korea Times

Kang brings up the 2014 incident when the North Koreans have had far worse cross border incidents that had nothing to do with the human rights activists sending leaflets to North Korea. For example the Kim regime shelled a South Korea island in 2010 with an artillery strike that killed both military personnel and civilians. To think that criminalizing the human rights activists is going to improve border security is a fallacy.

The only reason there hasn’t been a major border incident in recent years is because the Kim regime thinks they are close to getting their confederation idea implemented by the Moon administration and with it the beginning of the end of the US-ROK alliance as we currently know it.