Cabinet approves complete suspension of the pact to ease tensions between North and South Korea

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, second left, speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the government complex in Seoul on June 4. Yonhap

The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a motion calling for the complete suspension of a 2018 agreement to ease inter-Korean relations after North Korea sent hundreds of garbage-filled balloons across the border.

The motion was adopted during a Cabinet meeting held a day after the President’s National Security Council decided to suspend the comprehensive military agreement in response to the North’s balloon campaign and jamming of GPS signals in recent days.

The motion will be forwarded to President Yoon Suk Yeol for signature.

“North Korea’s continued provocations not only pose a massive threat to the lives and safety of our people, but also seriously undermine peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during the cabinet meeting, also referring to the North’s ballistic missile launches on Thursday.

“(The suspension of the pact) is legitimate according to the procedures established in our law. It allows military exercises that were prohibited under the September 19 military agreement near the military demarcation line and allows us to take more sufficient and immediate measures against North Korea’s provocations,” he said, noting that the suspension will be effective “until mutual trust between the South and the North is restored.”

A complete suspension of the pact, often referred to as the “September 19 military agreement” after the day it was signed in 2018, would allow South Korea to resume its military exercises near the border and resume propaganda broadcasts over loudspeakers to the North.

The government had already suspended part of the agreement in November in response to North Korea’s successful launch of a military spy satellite.

As part of the partial suspension, no-fly zones around the border were lifted to allow South Korea to resume reconnaissance and surveillance activities in the region.

A resumption of loudspeaker broadcasts is sure to anger Pyongyang, as they usually broadcast news and K-pop songs as well as criticism of the Kim Jong-un regime’s human rights violations.

North Korea has sent nearly 1,000 garbage-laden balloons to the South since last Tuesday, calling it a tit-for-tat move against South Korean activists who sent propaganda leaflets to the North.

After Seoul indicated on Sunday that it would resume loudspeaker broadcasts, Pyongyang announced that it would temporarily suspend balloon operations.

“We once again call on North Korea to immediately stop all provocations that threaten peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and embark on the path to shared prosperity between the South and the North,” Han said. (Yonhap)