Anti-regime leaflets sent across the inter-Korean border by activists in the South do not improve North Koreans’ access to information, Seoul’s unification ministry official said Tuesday.

Speaking in response to a recent op-ed by high-profile activist Park Sang-hak — whose activities sparked a major escalation of inter-Korean tensions last month — South Korea defended Seoul’s efforts to put a stop to those launches.

“Activities scattering anti-North leaflets and other items [into the North] are not much of a help to satisfying the North Korean residents’ right to know,” an official from Seoul’s Ministry of Unification (MOU) told reporters in a