South Korea bans anti-Pyongyang leaflets being ballooned to the North but human rights groups question the strategy

South Korea’s parliament has passed a bill to ban the launching of propaganda leaflets into North Korea, a move that was condemned by rights activists as a violation of freedom of speech.

Groups run by North Korean defectors and other campaigners have for decades sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets — alongside food, medicine, US$1 bills, mini radios and USB sticks containing South Korean news and dramas — into the North, usually by balloon or in bottles on border…