This archive report was first published on 17 July 2020.
Published on July 17, 2020, the move by Seoul's unification ministry has sparked debate over potential infringements on freedom of expression in the democratic South.
The leaflets, usually attached to hot air balloons or floated in bottles, criticise North Korean leader Kim Jong Un over human rights abuses and his nuclear ambitions.
However, the South Korean government views the leaflet campaign as a hindrance to their efforts for unification, raising tensions on the Korean peninsula and putting the safety and lives of Koreans living in border towns in danger.
Revoking the groups' operational permits does not render them illegal, but will make it harder for them to raise money and deny them access to benefits for registered organisations.
"We have deprived you of the most important value of democracy, which is freedom," Park Sang-hak, the leader of one of the groups, told AFP in response to the decision.
The move comes after Pyongyang issued a series of vitriolic condemnations of South Korea over the leaflets, which defectors based in the South continued to send despite an agreement to stop such propaganda activities in the Panmunjom Declaration signed by Kim and the South's President Moon Jae-in in 2018.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the South's moves, calling them "shameful" and urging President Moon to publicly demand that North Korea respect freedom of expression and stop censoring what North Koreans can see.
