The South Korean government said Monday it would raise a motion to suspend the entire 2018 inter-Korean military agreement “until trust between the two Koreas is fully restoredβ during a Tuesday cabinet meeting.
The National Security Council (NSC) convened earlier Monday and determined that Pyongyangβs recent provocations, including its sending of trash-filled balloons to the South, resulted in actual harm and posed a public threat, the presidential office said.
During the meeting presided over by Principal Deputy National Security Adviser Kim Tae-hyo, theΒ NSC said the motion is βlegitimate and proper according toΒ South Korean law,β adding it will enable more βprompt defense responses and meaningful military drills from our side, which were largely restricted by the 2018 military agreement.β
The inter-Korean military agreement of Sept. 19, 2018, was signed to alleviate tensions in border areas between the South and North. It included dismantling guard posts in the demilitarized zone (DMZ) and establishing a no-fly zone over the military demarcation line. However, last November, the North said it would totally scrap the military accord and launch its spy satellite.
South Korean military authorities now believe the defense agreement is ineffective and obstructs defense capabilities merely in the name of peace.
On Monday, the government also vowed to βseek all viable measures to defend the safety and lives of the public.β It also decided to take additional measures to counter future provocations from the North.
President Yoon Suk Yeol was later briefed on the details of the meeting.
On Sunday evening, North Korea said it would temporarily halt sending trash-filled balloons to South Korea.
North Korean Vice Defense Minister Kim Kang-il said that the North has allowed South Koreans to “experience how unpleasant” it is to clean up the scattered waste paper. This statement was carried by the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
Kim said that South Korean counterparts have now experienced what it was like to waste resources on removing such trash.
He described the Northβs filth-laden balloon launches as βcountermeasuresβ against anti-regime leaflets sent from South Korea by defectors and human rights groups.
Kim said that North Korea would resume launching such balloons across the inter-Korean border if anti-North leaflets reappeared in the country. He said the amount of trash and balloons sent to the South would be βa hundred timesβ larger than that of anti-North materials coming from the South.
According to Kim, Pyongyang had scattered β15 tons of waste paper with more than around 3,500 balloonsβ to border areas in the South and greater Seoul areas from last Tuesday to Sunday.
The Southβs Joint Chiefs of Staff reported that around 720 balloons sent from the North were discovered as of Sunday 1 p.m. These balloons and the waste they carried were found in Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong and North Gyeongsang.
Combined with the first batch of 260 balloons flown into the South between Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly 1,000 balloons have been identified and collected by South Korea.
On Sunday, South Korea warned of stern measures against North Koreaβs balloon intrusion, including the option of resuming loudspeaker broadcasts denouncing the Northβs regime.
A presidential official stated that Seoul could take βmeasures that the North will find unbearableβ in response to such balloon launches.
On Monday, a North Korean defectorsβ group in the South said it would βconsiderβ stopping its launches of anti-regime leaflets into the North if North Korean leader Kim Jong-un βpolitely apologizes for covering South Koreans in filth.β
Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, said the same day that there is βno changeβ in the groupβs plan to send leaflets condemning the Northβs military and authoritarian regime once the winds start blowing northward.
The group released a statement condemning Pyongyang, saying, βHow can the North send garbage when we sent them truth and facts about their regime, Korean dramas and trot music?β
In May, the group sent 20 large balloons to the North carrying 300,000 copies of anti-North leaflets and 2,000 USBs with South Korean trot music and dramas.
On the same day, the South Korean Unification Ministry said it would not restrain the groupβs launch of anti-North leaflets across the inter-Korean border. The ministry’s stance is “to respect the Supreme Courtβs ruling” that removed legal restrictions on the launches.
Last September, the Supreme Court ruled that a law prohibiting the distribution of anti-North materials was βunconstitutionalβ and “violated peopleβs rights to free expression.”
However, South Korean Unification Ministry spokesperson Koo Byung-sam left room for state intervention in emergency cases when the North is staging provocations, saying that police officers could take “proper measures” to curb the actions of the defectorsβ group “according to the on-the-ground situation.β
BY LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]
