A South Korean opposition lawmaker filed a resolution Thursday calling for the implementation of past inter-Korean agreements to stop slander between the two sides.

The resolution, submitted by Rep. Sim Jae-kwon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, calls on the two Koreas to recognize that mutual recognition and respect are the basis for trust-building. It also urges the two sides to honor such agreements as the joint statement of July 1972, which bans cross-border slander.

Sim, the NPAD leader on the parliamentary foreign affairs and unification committee, also demanded the North express regret over its recent threats to retaliate against South Korean activists who float propaganda leaflets across the border and stop all provocative rhetoric and actions.

South Korean activists, mostly defectors from North Korea, regularly send leaflets denouncing the North’s political regime and dire economic conditions.

On Sunday, 10 activists from Fighters for Free North Korea released 10 big balloons carrying 200,000 anti-Pyongyang leaflets near the border with North Korea.

The latest campaign came only days after Pyongyang sent a rare letter to the South’s presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, demanding that Seoul stop the leaflet activity.

In the resolution, Sim urged the government to “take appropriate action” against the campaigns, bearing in mind the “seriously harmful influence” they have on inter-Korean relations.

The resolution is “aimed at resolving the heightening crisis in inter-Korean relations caused by the spread of anti-North Korea leaflets despite the successful hosting of the Asian Games,” Sim said.

The North has dispatched a 273-member delegation to the games that opened in South Korea’s western port city of Incheon on Friday.

Seoul has long maintained that it has no legal basis to stop the activities of civic groups, saying recently that “the anti-Pyongyang leaflet issue is something private activists have to decide for themselves.” (Yonhap)