The South Korean parliament is projected to pass a resolution next week urging Seoul and Pyongyang to mutually refrain from verbal attacks, officials in the South’s national legislature said Tuesday.



The resolution is expected to be approved by the foreign affairs committee in South Korea’s National Assembly Thursday, and receive final endorsement at a plenary session on Jan. 12.



The resolution comes amid a mood of rapprochement between North and South Korea. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed wishes in his New Year address to hold high-level talks with the South. Top Seoul officials have welcomed Kim’s gesture.



The resolution is expected to offer much-needed domestic political support to South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s efforts to thaw relations with the North as she enters her third year in office.



South Korean presidents serve a nonrenewable five-year term and often become lame ducks sometime after their third year.



The resolution also urged South Korean officials to “take necessary measures” against South Korean human rights activists sending balloon leaflets to the North, if the actions “harm inter-Korean relations” or cause “safety concerns.”



The leaflets have sparked a public debate as the actions provoked the North to threaten artillery attacks on the South as a reprisal. The leaflets are usually filled with anti-North Korea newsletters and cash, to raise awareness about the differences between North and South Korea.



“It provides the government a basis from which to block the activists,” said Rep. Kim Sung-gon of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy.



North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University Koh Yu-hwan agreed.



“The resolution will prevent a few activists from having the power to sway inter-Korean relations by sending off their leaflets,” he said.



Seoul’s main political parties had formerly disagreed on a clause in the “Resolution demanding the enforcement of past inter-Korean mutual-disparagement agreements.”



“The National Assembly of South Korea urges officials from both sides of the border to enforce past mutual disparagement agreements,” the thorny clause reads.



South Korean government officials and lawmakers from President Park’s governing Saenuri Party had expressed concern over the clause as it seemed to imply that the South Korean government had engaged in an aggressive anti-Pyongyang verbal attack policy.



NPAD Rep. Shim Jae-kwon, a chief writer of the resolution, reassured the ruling party, saying the clause was meant to “enhance the spirit of past mutual agreements” between the North and South.



But the resolution may have limited meaning, according to one expert.



“It is difficult to define defamation and slandering in the South,” Chang Yong-seok, senior researcher at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies of Seoul National University.



The South can’t control nongovernment bodies from criticizing the North, Chang said, and could trigger mixed reactions from Pyongyang.



By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)