South Korea resumes military activities after suspension of 2018 inter-Korean pact

South Korea will resume all military activities near the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) and the western border islands, following the complete suspension of an inter-Korean military pact signed in 2018, to reduce inter-Korean tensions, the ministry has announced. of South Korean Defense.

The announcement came after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol endorse a motion for the suspension of the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA, according to its acronym in English), in response to the North Korean campaign to send balloons with garbage and the attacks of interference from global positioning system (GPS) signalsduring the last few days.

“The measure consists of restoring to normal all the military activities of our Army, which had been restricted” by the 2018 agreement, the ministry explained, and promised to execute “all possible measures” to protect the lives and safety of those South Korean citizens. He also added that “full responsibility” for causing the situation lies with the North Korean regime, and that if the North tries to carry out additional provocations, the South Korean military will counterattack firmly, based on a firm combined defense posture. between South Korea and the United States.

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The suspension of the agreement will also allow South Korea to restart the broadcast of anti-North Korea propaganda, through public address systems, in the border area.

Lee Sung-jun, spokesman for South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said in a regular briefing that several measures could be taken after the suspension, noting that the military has operated both fixed and mobile loudspeakers on the front line. . Fixed speakers need to be connected to power and installation could take “from a few hours to a few days,” but operations with mobile speakers can be done “immediately,” he added.

Loudspeakers often blared criticism of the Kim Jong-un regime’s human rights abuses, as well as news and K-pop songs, prompting angry responses from Pyongyang.

The Government announced that there does not appear to be any plan to immediately install the fixed loudspeakers, as such activities could increase military tension, indicating that the Army will probably operate the mobile equipment first, if public address broadcasting is resumed.

Meanwhile, the JCS spokesman declined to provide further details on what measures the armed service could take after the suspension of the pact, saying they could begin them “immediately,” but noting that they would depend, to a large extent, on North Korea’s actions.

The 2018 agreement included the establishment of buffer zones around the border, in order to suspend large-scale military exercises, as well as the prohibition of “hostile” acts between the two Koreas, which restricted public address broadcasts.