Ruling party leader calls US “second-tier democracy,” calls anti-leaflet law hearing infringement of sovereignty

Posted on : 2021-05-20 17:18 KST Modified on : 2021-05-20 17:18 KST
Song Young-gil’s Tuesday remarks came just one day ahead of Moon’s scheduled visit to Washington
Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil attends a commemorative ceremony to mark the 41st anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising at the May 18 National Cemetery on Tuesday. (Yonhap News)
Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil attends a commemorative ceremony to mark the 41st anniversary of the Gwangju Uprising at the May 18 National Cemetery on Tuesday. (Yonhap News)

Democratic Party leader Song Young-gil criticized the US as a “second-tier democracy” that had “significantly overstepped its authority” when the US House of Representatives held a hearing about South Korea banning the launch of balloons filled with anti-Pyongyang leaflets. Song’s comments came Tuesday, just one day before South Korean President Moon Jae-in was planning to visit the US for a summit with US President Joe Biden.

Song made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the awards ceremony for the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which was held at the Gwangju May 18 Memorial Cultural Center in Gwangju.

“It seems a bit much to defend leaflets depicting crudely manipulated nude images of Kim Jong-un and Kim Yo-jong under the freedom of expression. It’s not as if we can openly tolerate the distribution of leaflets that insult and attack the other side, leaflets that could be construed as being a type of psychological warfare in a country that’s still legally in a state of war,” Song said.

Song was referring to a hearing held by the US House of Representatives about South Korea’s ban on the launch of leaflet-filled balloons. Song sponsored the leaflet ban, which makes launching leaflets into North Korea a criminal offense, while chairing the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee last year.

“South Korea was rated as a ‘full democracy,’ while the US and France were rated as ‘flawed democracies.’ The Americans even closed the Twitter account of a sitting president because of his demagoguery,” Song said, referring to democracy ratings assigned to each country by the British magazine the Economist.

Song observed that it was contradictory for the US to cite the freedom of expression in criticizing the ban on anti-Pyongyang leaflets, which could raise tensions on the Korean Peninsula when Americans had kicked former President Donald Trump off social media after he refused to accept his loss in the election.

“The US Supreme Court has consistently ruled that the freedom of expression can be restricted when there is a clear danger. Therefore, [the US] significantly overstepped its authority when it [criticized] a law passed by the South Korean legislature,” Song added.

By Shim Wu-sam, staff reporter

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