South Korea fully suspending military pact with North Korea over trash balloons

Seoul, South Korea — Seoul will fully suspend a 2018 military de-escalation agreement with nuclear-armed countries North Koreasaid the Southern National Security Council on Monday, after Pyongyang sent hundreds of balloons filled with trash Across the border.

Seoul partially suspended the agreement last year after the North put a spy satellite into orbitt, but the NSC said it would tell the cabinet “to suspend the full effect of the ‘September 19 Military Agreement’ until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored.”

Last week, Pyongyang sent nearly a thousand balloons carrying trash, including cigarette butts and probably manure, to the South, in what it says was retaliation for anti-regime propaganda letters organized by activists in the South.

South Korea has called its neighbor’s latest provocation “irrational” and “low-class,” but unlike the spate of recent ballistic missile launches, the rubbish campaign does not violate UN sanctions on Kim’s isolated government Jong Un.

North Korea called off the balloon bombing on Sunday, saying it had been an effective countermeasure but warned more could follow if necessary.

The 2018 military agreement, signed during a period of warmer ties between the two countries that remain technically at war, aimed to reduce tensions on the peninsula and prevent accidental escalation, especially along the heavily fortified border.

But after Seoul partially suspended the deal in November last year to protest Pyongyang’s successful spy satellite launch, the North said it would no longer honor the deal.

As a result, Seoul’s NSC said the agreement was “virtually null and void due to North Korea’s declaration of de facto abandonment” anyway, but that complying with the remainder of the agreement was harming the South in terms of its ability to respond to threats such as balloons.

Respect for the agreement “is causing significant problems in the readiness posture of our military, especially in the context of a series of recent provocations by North Korea that pose real harm and threats to our citizens,” he said.

The measure will allow “military training in areas around the Military Demarcation Line,” he said, and will allow for “more sufficient and immediate responses to North Korean provocations.”

The decision needs to be approved by a cabinet meeting scheduled for Tuesday before it comes into force.

Ties between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in recent years, with diplomacy having long stagnated and Kim Jong Un accelerating weapons testing and development, while the South draws closer to Washington, its main security ally. .

Seoul’s decision to abandon the 2018 tension reduction agreement shows “it will not tolerate trash balloons crossing the border considering international norms and the terms of the truce,” said Hong Min, a senior analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification. in Seoul.

“However, this could further provoke Pyongyang when it becomes impossible to physically block balloons floating southward,” he said.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the balloons did not contain hazardous materials but were landing in northern provinces, including the capital Seoul and the adjacent Gyeonggi area, which are collectively home to nearly half of South Korea’s population.

South Korean officials also said Seoul would not rule out the possibility of responding to the balloons by resuming propaganda campaigns on loudspeakers along the border with North Korea.

In the past, South Korea has broadcast anti-Kim propaganda to the North, which has infuriated Pyongyang, with experts warning that a resurgence could even lead to skirmishes along the border.