South Korean President Yoon has signed the suspension of the 2018 pact with Pyongyang which provided for a reduction in tensions. The decision comes after North Korea sent dozens of balloons full of rubbish southwards
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Tensions between North and South Korea continue. The Seoul government has decided that it will restore all border military activities that had been limited by the tension-reduction pact signed in 2018 with Pyongyang. A step backwards therefore in the relations between the two States. The decision came after South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol gave the green light to the motion establishing a total stop to the pact in response to last week’s sending of hundreds of balloons from North Korea to South Korean territory full of rubbish and manure. Yoon signed the measure shortly after its approval by the government, in the wake of the proposal put forward by the National Security Council against the North’s campaign on balloons and jamming of GPS signals.
The background: garbage balloons from the North
The South Korean government’s choice to break the 2018 Pyongyang agreement comes a few days after a particular episode: dozens and dozens of waste-filled aerostatic balloons were launched from North Korea towards the South. The reaction of the South Korean military was harsh for which was a “blatant violation of international law”, a “serious threat to the security of our population”.
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“This measure is returning to normal all military activities of our military limited” by the 2018 pact, the Defense Ministry said in a statement, vowing to take “all possible measures” to protect the lives and safety of the South Korean people . “All responsibility for this situation lies with the North Korean regime, and if the North attempts to mount further provocations, our military will react severely based on a firm combined defense posture between South Korea and the US,” the ministry warned.
The propaganda begins again
The suspension will also allow Seoul to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts to the North. In this regard, Joint Staff Command spokesman Lee Sung-jun said that “fixed speakers need to be connected to power and their installation may take up to a few days. Operations on mobile speakers can be performed immediately “. Loudspeakers used to broadcast heavy criticism of the hermit country’s human rights abuses, alongside news stories and K-pop songs, prompting angry responses from Pyongyang. At the moment, according to the Yonhap agency, however, there are no government plans to immediately install the fixed equipment as it could increase military tension, underlining that the military will probably use the mobile equipment first if such operations are restarted.
What happens now
South Korean President Lee did not elaborate on what measures the military might take after the pact is suspended, but noted that everything would depend on North Korea’s actions. “There are things,” he said, “that we can do immediately and we could make public, many of which could be seen as largely dependent on North Korea.”
