Seoul completely suspends inter-Korean military pact over garbage balloons

SEOUL: South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday completely suspended a 2018 tension-reducing military agreement with the North. In response, Pyongyang bombed his country with garbage balloons last week.

The agreement, signed during a period of more relaxed relations, was already largely void. Seoul partially suspended it last year in response to North Korea’s deployment of a spy satellite, after which Pyongyang said it would not comply with it at all.

But Seoul security officials said that complying with even some parts of the agreement would undermine their ability to defend themselves against the North’s provocations, such as sending nearly 1,000 balloons filled with garbage such as cigarette butts and manure across the border last week.

President Yoon has “just approved the ‘proposal to suspend the military agreement of September 19 (2018)'”, which the Cabinet has already signed, his office said in a statement.

Yoon’s approval means the agreement is suspended with immediate effect.

The move will allow the South to resume live-fire exercises and relaunch loudspeaker propaganda campaigns along the border with the North.

The South used the loudspeaker campaigns – a psychological warfare tactic dating back to the Korean War of 1950-1953 – as a countermeasure to what it viewed as serious provocations by North Korea.

For example, they were last used in 2016 after Pyongyang conducted its fourth nuclear test, until they were cancelled a few days before the historic inter-Korean summit in 2018 at which the tension-reducing military agreement was signed.

In the loudspeaker campaigns, South Korea uses large megaphones to broadcast everything from K-pop to anti-regime propaganda into areas near the demilitarized zone that separates the two countries, which are technically still at war.

The broadcasts angered Pyongyang, which had previously threatened artillery attacks on the loudspeaker systems if they were not switched off.

Pyongyang said the garbage balloons were retaliation for similar letters sent to the North by South Korean activists.

An anti-Pyongyang group in the South said on Monday that it sent balloons containing about 2,000 USB sticks to the North on May 10, containing songs by South Korean mega-defiant singer Lim Young-woong as well as other K-pop and K-drama titles.

The isolated country attaches great importance to ensuring that its population has access to South Korea’s thriving pop culture.

According to a United Nations report, Pyongyang passed a law in 2020 that punishes anyone who owns or distributes large amounts of media content from the South with life imprisonment or even the death penalty.

Seoul also said Pyongyang tried to jam GPS signals for several days last week.

Pyongyang called off the balloon attack on Sunday, saying it was an effective countermeasure, but warned that more attacks could follow if South Korean activists resume their campaigns against the North.

“Truths and Love”

Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the suspension would restore “all military activities” in areas near the inter-Korean border.

JCS spokesman Lee Sung-jun said mobile speakers could be ready for use “immediately,” while installing fixed units could take several days.

“Just because North Korea dumps waste doesn’t mean we can do the same. That would be a criminal act,” he added.

Under the 2018 agreement, both countries agreed to “completely cease all hostile actions,” including the distribution of propaganda leaflets from the South.

South Korea’s parliament made it illegal to send leaflets to the North in 2020. The law, which did not deter activists, was repealed last year as a violation of freedom of expression.

Activist Park Sang-hak told AFP his group plans to distribute 5,000 USB sticks containing K-dramas and other music by Lim, as well as 200,000 leaflets, starting Thursday.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, Park, a North Korean defector who is also behind the May 10 balloon launch, said his group sent millions of paracetamol and vitamin C tablets, 140,000 masks, as well as cash and USB sticks filled with potassium to the North.

“We sent facts and truths, love, medicine, one-dollar bills, dramas and trot music. But in return the North sent us dirt and garbage,” he said.