Seoul says it could enact an „unbearable“ response to Pyongyang’s sending of trash-carrying balloons across the border.<\/b>
\nSouth 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.
Among the understandings reached that September were no-fly zones near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), in addition to the dismantling of guard posts and the removal of land mines. It also restricted military exercises in the area, creating a larger buffer zone to reduce the chance of accidental clashes.
In a series of escalations last fall, South Korea responded to the North’s spy satellite launch by partially suspending the agreement to allow the resumption of reconnaissance flights near the DMZ.
North Korea then quit the 2018 pact altogether, and this week’s events seemingly bringing to a close the fragile peace process of 2018 to 2019.
It is likely to raise the stakes on the Korean Peninsula for the United States, Seoul’s longtime treaty ally, and for China, Pyongyang’s neighbor and only formal defense treaty partner.
„As Kim Jong Un recently declared South Korea the North’s ‚principal enemy‘ and has formally abandoned hopes for peaceful unification, Yoon Suk Yeol surely sees no sense in adhering to an agreement that only ties Seoul’s hands as regards defensive military exercises near the border,“ Sean King, senior vice president of the Park Strategies consultancy in New York, told Newsweek.
„Yoon’s all in on Washington and Tokyo and has little to no patience for Pyongyang. South Korea flies leaflets over the border while the North sends poop. That about says it all,“ King said.
„North Korea’s continuous provocations not only greatly threaten the lives and safety of our people, but also seriously undermine peace on the Korean Peninsula,“ South Korea’s Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said on Thursday. He referred also to last week’s barrage of ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, which both Koreas call the East Sea.
Seoul’s decision to suspend the 2018 agreement „enables us to take more sufficient and immediate action against North Korea’s provocations,“ Yonhap quoted Han as saying. The South would consider returning to the pact only when „mutual trust between the South and the North is restored,“ he said.
Reached by Newsweek, the Pentagon declined to comment on South Korea’s suspension of the inter-Korean agreement.
A spokesperson said: „The U.S. commitment to the alliance is ironclad. We have made this clear both through words and actions.“<\/p>\n