The following article is an opinion piece by Jumin Lee, a Korean attorney based in Los Angeles. Views expressed in opinion articles are exclusively the author’s own and do not represent those of NK News.

It’s not just about fliers and balloons. On Monday evening, South Korea passed the controversial “leaflet bill,” representing the single broadest content-based regulation on political speech in the country’s history since the National Security Act — a shameful Cold War-era relic that somehow still remains on the books. 

Just as the National Security Act broadly criminalizes dissident speech based on national security concerns originally advanced