The South Korean government should allow launches of balloons carrying anti-regime leaflets into North Korea, recently-elected lawmaker and defector Ji Seong-ho said Thursday, arguing the benefits of spreading information outweighed the risks to inter-Korean relations.

Speaking at his first press conference with foreign correspondents in Seoul since his election in April, Ji Seong-ho responded to news that the South Korean government was planning legislation to better prevent activists sending the leaflets to the DPRK.

In comments that followed North Korean threats earlier in the dayto withdraw from an inter-Korean military agreement should those launches continue, Ji urged Seoul