Park Sang-hak, center, a refugee from the North who runs the group Fighters for a Free North Korea from a small Seoul office, and South Korean conservative activists prepare to release balloons bearing leaflets condemning the North Korean leader during an anti-North Korea rally against the 99th anniversary of Kim Il Sung's birth, called"The Day of the Sun," at the Imjingak Pavilion near the border village of Panmunjom in Paju, South Korea, on April 15, 2011.
South Korea’s Unification Ministry promoted the law when the liberals were in power but reversed its stance to align with the views of the current conservative government that took office last year, saying that outlawing leafleting went too far. But the ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, still would prefer for Park and other activists to stop flying pamphlets into North Korea.
The court’s justices voted 7-2 in favor of nullifying the law, concluding that it excessively restricts freedom of expression in a broad range of activities and “mobilizes the state power of punishment when that should be a last resort.” Park and other defectors from the North for years have used huge helium-filled balloons to launch leaflets criticizing the leadership of North Korea’s authoritarian ruler, Kim Jong Un, his nuclear weapons ambitions and the country’s dismal human rights record. The leaflets are often packaged with U.S. dollar bills. and USB sticks containing information about world news., Park said he flew 20 balloons carrying 200,000 leaflets and 1,000 USB sticks from a South Korean border island last Wednesday.
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