The government has denounced claims by Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, that the North’s sending of balloons carrying garbage and excrement across the inter-Korean border was a freedom of expression by the North Korean people. 

The unification ministry revealed such position on Thursday in a statement distributed to reporters on Kim’s remarks. 

The ministry said the latest claims are self-contradictory given that the North limits freedom of expression with three laws. 

When asked by reporters whether the government plans to ask South Korean civic groups to refrain from sending anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets to the North, a ministry official said the government will review such an option among others. 

However, the official was quick to add that there is no change in the government’s stance to not make such a request officially, citing that the government is handling issues related to such pamphlets based on last year’s ruling by the Constitutional Court.

Last September, the top court ruled that a 2020 law criminalizing the sending of such propaganda leaflets to the North was against the constitution as it excessively restricts free speech.