South Korea’s Constitutional Court strikes down law banning anti-Pyongyang leafleting

By KIM TONG-HYUNG
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s Constitutional Court has struck down a 2020 law that criminalized the sending of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to North Korea, calling it an excessive restriction on free speech. The court issued the ruling on Tuesday in response to a complaint filed by North Korean defector-activists in the South. They included Park Sang-hak, who has flown leaflets across the border with helium-filled balloons for years. The law made leafleting a crime punishable by up to three years in prison or a fine of 30 million won ($22,000). It was passed six months after the North expressed its displeasure over the leaflets by blowing up an inter-Korean liaison office in a Northern border town.