South Korea suspends military agreement with North Korea after tensions over North Korean balloons

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The South Korean government agreed Tuesday to suspend a controversial military agreement with North Korea, a move that would allow the government to respond more harshly to North Korean provocations.

This development comes after hostilities between the two rival Koreas recently escalated sharply after North Korea sent garbage balloons across the border in response to previous leaflet campaigns among the civilian population.

South Korea’s Cabinet Council has approved a proposal to suspend the 2018 inter-Korean agreement to reduce military tensions on the front line. The proposal will officially take effect when it is signed by President Yoon Suk Yeol, which officials said is expected to happen later on Tuesday.

During the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, South Korea’s second-highest official, said the government had assessed that the 2018 agreement had weakened South Korea’s military readiness at a time when repeated North Korean provocations posed a real threat to the South Korean public.

Han referred to North Korea’s balloon campaign, tests of nuclear-capable weapons aimed at South Korea and the alleged jamming of GPS navigation signals in the South.

The military agreement, reached during a short-lived era of reconciliation between the two Koreas, requires the two countries to cease all hostile acts against each other in their border areas, such as live-fire exercises, air maneuvers and psychological warfare.

The agreement was sharply criticized by conservative politicians in South Korea, who believe that a mutual reduction in conventional military strength would ultimately weaken the South’s willingness to go to war, while North Korea’s nuclear power would be maintained.

Last week, North Korea used balloons to throw dung, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth and waste paper at South Korea, prompting South Korea to vouch for unspecified “unbearable” retaliation. On Sunday, North Korea announced it would end its balloon campaign.

South Korean officials said the suspension of the 2018 agreement would allow the country to conduct military exercises on the front lines, but did not publicly comment on further steps. Observers said South Korea is considering resuming propaganda broadcasts over loudspeakers, a Cold War-style psychological campaign that experts say has previously hurt in tightly controlled North Korea, where most of its 26 million people are denied official access to foreign news.

The 2018 agreement was already in limbo after the two Koreas took some steps to violate it amid tensions over the launch of North Korea’s spy satellite last November.