Seoul says it could enact an “unbearable” response to Pyongyang’s sending of trash-carrying balloons across the border.
South Korea says all military activities are to resume near its heavily fortified border with the North after it fully suspended from a previous agreement over Pyongyang’s “continuous provocations.”
The decision was formalized on Tuesday by President Yoon Suk Yeol, after his cabinet in Seoul sought a meaningful response to North Korea’s launching of hundreds to thousands of balloons carrying trash and propaganda across the border and its electronic attacks at the maritime boundary in their western seas.
“All responsibility for causing this situation lies with the North Korean regime,” the South’s Defense Ministry said, according to the Yonhap news agency. It vowed to take “all possible measures” to protect the country’s citizens.
The inter-Korean pact, meant to reduce long-running tensions near the de facto border, known as the Military Demarcation Line, was signed in 2018 by Yoon’s predecessor, then-President Moon Jae-in, during a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. North Korea’s embassy in Beijing did not immediately respond to a written request for comment.
