Seoul's Unification Ministry officials met with representatives of North Korean defectors' groups to ask them to refrain from flying anti-North propaganda leaflets across the border.
 
Lee Min-bok, president of "Campaign for Helping North Korean in Direct Way," told KBS that a director-level official from the Unification Ministry visited the group on Thursday and asked to halt sending leaflets via balloon for the sake of inter-Korean ties and public safety.
 
The official was said to have cited a poll result showing 67 percent of South Koreans were against the leaflet distribution.
 
The ministry official also met with Fighters for Free North Korea president Park Sang-hak and conveyed the government’s stance. The ministry urged wisdom and prudence in the decision to distribute DVDs of the U.S. comedy film "The Interview" about an assassination plot on the North Korean leader.
 
Park told KBS that his group will decide whether to distribute the DVDs and if so, when and whether it will be done publicly, after discussing the matter with officials from the U.S. Human Rights Foundation who will be arriving in Korea this weekend.