The government has convened a meeting to discuss ways to stop people from sending anti-North Korean propaganda leaflets across the inter-Korean border. 

The meeting was held Monday, two days after President Lee Jae-myung ordered agencies to devise such measures, vowing strict penalties for organizations and individuals that launch leaflets into North Korea if legal grounds exist to stop them.

Kang Jong-suk, the head of the unification ministry’s Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs Office, chaired the meeting for working-level officials from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat, the National Intelligence Service, the interior ministry, the transport ministry and the Korean National Police Agency. 

Participants are likely to have discussed the Aviation Safety Act and the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety, among other laws the government has considered using against people who launch anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.

In September 2023, the Constitutional Court ruled that a law banning the leaflet launches into the North was an unconstitutional infringement on freedom of expression. 

But the government believes the leaflet launches may violate other laws, such as the Aviation Safety Act.