Cabinet approves suspension of 2018 inter-Korean military pact

South Korea is likely to resume land, sea and air exercises along its border with the North after the Cabinet on Tuesday approved a motion to suspend a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement. The suspension was a response to numerous actions condemned by Pyongyang as provocations.

Speaking to reporters on condition of anonymity, a military official said on Tuesday that the South plans to “resume exercises within the buffer zone” established by the agreement, after the National Security Council (NSC) recommended suspending the buffer zone the previous day.

The NSC’s request was approved by the Cabinet on Tuesday during a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Han Duck-soo at the central government complex in Jongno District, central Seoul.

Under the terms of the 2018 agreement, both Koreas were prohibited from conducting live-fire artillery drills or outdoor exercises with units larger than a regiment within a buffer zone stretching five kilometers on either side of the military demarcation line that divides the peninsula.

The agreement also prohibited warships and coastal guns from firing live artillery shells along the inter-Korean borders in the Yellow and East Seas. Fixed-wing aircraft were also prohibited from conducting tactical exercises with air-to-ground missiles within the buffer zone.

The decision to suspend the pact between the two Koreas came two days after South Korea’s presidential office warned it would take “unbearable” measures against the North for jamming GPS signals along the inter-Korean border and releasing nearly 1,000 garbage-laden balloons into the South last week. Seoul criticized the move as a violation of the armistice that ended active hostilities in the 1950-53 Korean War.

The North also attempted to launch a spy satellite into orbit on May 27 and fired 10 short-range ballistic missiles on Thursday, violating UN Security Council resolutions that prohibit it from launching or testing ballistic missile technology.

Local media also speculated that Seoul might resume its anti-Pyongyang propaganda broadcasts via loudspeakers that were once located along the border but were dismantled as part of the inter-Korean military agreement.

The pact, which was signed by the defense ministers of both Koreas during the summit between then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in September 2018, was already in limbo before Tuesday.

After the North launched its first spy satellite into orbit in November last year, the South Korean government announced it would suspend provisions of the agreement that prohibited reconnaissance and surveillance activities along the inter-Korean border.

But the North Korean Defense Ministry announced shortly afterwards via state media that it would immediately resume all activities prohibited by the pact and station “stronger forces” and “new types of military equipment” along the MDL.

Pyongyang’s Defense Ministry also vowed that it would “never again feel bound by the agreement” in the future and warned Seoul that it would “pay dearly” for terminating parts of the agreement.

BY MICHAEL LEE ([email protected])