Activists to halt flying anti-N.K. leaflets

(ATTN: RECASTS headline, lead; UPDATES civic groups' statement in paras 3, 4)
SEOUL, Dec. 5 (Yonhap) -- Conservative activists in South Korea said Friday they
will temporarily suspend sending anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the inter-Korean
border, going along with Seoul's effort to temper friction with the communist
neighbor.
The spreading of the leaflets has become yet another bone of contention between
the two divided countries, with North Korea sharply restricting passage across
their shared border in retaliation.
"Under the ruling party chairman's request, we have decided to stop sending
flyers for the time being and observe changes in North Korea's attitude," said an
alliance of civic groups, including the Fighters for Free North Korea, in a joint
statement. "This decision has nothing to do with North Korea's threats or the
pro-Pyongyang force in the South."
Chairman Park Hee-tae of the ruling Grand National Party met with activist
leaders earlier Friday, asking them to halt sending the anti-Pyongyang leaflets
for "a bigger goal" of mending ties with the North.
It was the conservative party's first official move regarding the issue.
Conservative activists here, many of whom are family members of South Koreans
abducted by the North, often fly balloons into North Korea laden with leaflets
denouncing the communist regime and calling for North Koreans to defect to the
South. They have snubbed repeated requests by the South Korean government to
suspend the activity.
North Korea has been taking a series of hardline measures against South Korea in
recent weeks, which included restricting passage across their shared border and
ousting thousands of South Korean workers from a joint industrial park.
Relations between the two Koreas began to sour after the conservative Lee
Myung-bak administration took office in February, vowing to get tougher on
Pyongyang.
Breaking with the engagement policies pushed by his predecessors, President Lee
has made clear on several occasions that his government will not expand
inter-Korean cooperation projects until North Korea abandons all of its nuclear
ambitions.
The two Koreas, which technically remain at war, are both party to the six-nation
aid-for-denuclearization talks, along with China, Japan, Russia and the United
States.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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