Seoul completely suspends inter-Korean military agreement

SEOUL (AFP) – Seoul will completely suspend a 2018 tension-reducing military agreement with North Korea, the country’s National Security Council (NSC) said yesterday, after Pyongyang sent hundreds of garbage-filled balloons across the border.

Seoul partially suspended the agreement last year after the North launched a spy satellite into orbit, but the NSC said it would instruct the Cabinet to “suspend the entire effect of the ‘September 19 military agreement’ until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored.”

Last week, Pyongyang sent nearly a thousand balloons filled with garbage, including cigarette butts and probably manure, to the South. It said this was in retaliation for letters written by South Korean activists containing anti-regime propaganda. South Korea called its neighbor’s latest provocation “irrational” and “substandard,” but unlike the recent missile launches, the garbage campaign does not violate United Nations sanctions against Kim Jong-un’s isolated government.