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| ▲ A North Korean soldier stands guard at a border outpost in this photo taken June 3, 2024, from South Korea's border city of Paju, 37 kilometers northwest of Seoul. (Yonhap) |
(LEAD) S Korea-military pact
(LEAD) S. Korea to restore all military activities in border area following suspension of 2018 inter-Korean pact
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SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- South Korea will resume all military activities near the Military Demarcation Line and its northwestern border islands with the full suspension of a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact, the defense ministry said Tuesday.
The announcement came after President Yoon Suk Yeol endorsed a motion to fully suspend the Comprehensive Military Agreement in response to the North's trash-carrying balloon campaign and jamming of GPS signals in recent days.
"This measure is restoring to normality all military activities by our military, which had been restricted by" the 2018 pact, the defense ministry said, vowing to take "all possible measures" to protect the lives and safety of the South Korean people.
"All responsibility for causing this situation lies with the North Korean regime and if the North attempts to stage additional provocation, our military will sternly retaliate based on a firm S. Korea-U.S. combined defense posture," the ministry said.
The suspension will also allow South Korea to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts toward the North.
Joint Chiefs of Staff spokesperson Lee Sung-jun said various measures could be taken after the suspension, noting that the military has operated both fixed and mobile loudspeakers on the front lines.
"Fixed loudspeakers need to be connected to power and installing them could take hours to a few days," Lee told a regular briefing. "Mobile loudspeaker operations can be conducted right away."
The loudspeakers used to blare criticism of the Kim Jong-un regime's human rights abuses, news and K-pop songs, drawing angry responses from Pyongyang.
A government source said there appears to be no plan to immediately install the fixed equipment as such activities could heighten military tension, noting that the military will likely operate the mobile equipment first if such broadcasts are resumed.
Meanwhile, Lee declined to elaborate on the measures the military could take after the pact's suspension, but noted that they would depend on North Korea's actions.
"There are things that we can immediately do, and we could make them public, and a lot of those things can be seen as largely depending on North Korea," he said.
The 2018 deal included setting up buffer zones around the border to suspend large-scale military drills, as well as banning "hostile" acts between the two Koreas, which restricted the loudspeaker broadcasts.
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