South Korea suspends military alliance with North Korea over balloon waste

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans to suspend a military agreement signed with North Korea in 2018 to ease tensions, the presidential office said on Monday, after Seoul warned of a strong reaction to balloons carrying garbage launched by Pyongyang toward the South.

North Korea released hundreds of balloons across the border and dropped debris over South Korea. South Korea called this a provocation and rejected claims that it was done to cause trouble for its neighbor.

The National Security Council said during a meeting on Tuesday that it would submit the plan to suspend the entire military agreement to the Cabinet for approval.

The suspension of the agreement will allow the South to conduct exercises near the military border and take “sufficient and immediate measures” in response to North Korea’s provocation, the council said in a statement.

What these measures might be was not explained in detail.

The pact, which was the most substantive agreement to emerge from months of historic summits between the two Koreas in 2018, was effectively scrapped when Pyongyang declared last year that it was no longer bound by it.

Since then, the North has deployed troops and weapons to guard posts near the military border.

Even if the pact continues to be adhered to, “there have been significant problems with the operational readiness of our armed forces,” the Council statement said.

South Korea had previously said it would take “unacceptable” measures against North Korea for sending the garbage balloons across the border. This would include blaring propaganda against the North from loudspeakers at the border.

North Korea said the balloons were in retaliation for a propaganda campaign by North Korean defectors and activists in the South, who regularly sent dinghies across the border carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets, food, medicine, money and USB sticks filled with K-pop music videos and dramas.

North Korea has reacted angrily to the campaign because, experts say, it is concerned about the potential impact of the materials on the psyche of people who read or listen to them, as well as about government control over the public.

(Reporting by Jack Kim; Editing by Kim Coghill and Michael Perry)