DP launches task force to prevent anti-Pyongyang leafleting campaign

SEOUL, July 12 (Yonhap) -- The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Friday launched a task force to prevent activists in South Korea from sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets to North Korea.

The DP will also propose a bill that bans the distribution of leaflets in a measure intended to prevent provoking the North after it sent thousands of trash-carrying balloons to the South since late May.

"(The government and the ruling party) are hiding behind the rhetoric of freedom of expression while ignoring the anxiety and fear felt by residents in the border areas and the public," DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said during a ceremony at the National Assembly celebrating the launch of the group.

Lawmakers in the relevant standing committees will "actively support" measures that ban the "harmful and useless" distribution of leaflets, he added.

Rep. Yoon Hu-duk, head of the task force, also said he will come up with all possible measures to prevent activists from sending the leaflets at the scene.

For years, North Korean defectors in South Korea and conservative activists have sent to the North balloons carrying leaflets critical of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

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