South Korea to restore all military activities along border with North

By Anadolu staff

ANKARA (AA) – South Korea Tuesday said it will resume all military activities along the border with arch-rival North Korea for the first time in more than five years, with the full suspension of a 2018 inter-Korean tension reduction pact.

The move came after Seoul fully suspended the Comprehensive Military Agreement until “mutual trust is restored” in response to Pyongyang’s trash-carrying balloon campaign and jamming of GPS signals in recent days, Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

"This measure is restoring to normality all military activities by our military, which had been restricted by the 2018 pact," Cho Chang-rae, deputy defense minister for policy, said in a press briefing, vowing to take "all possible measures" to protect the lives and safety of the South Korean people.

"All responsibility for causing this situation lies with the North Korean regime and if the North attempts to stage additional provocations, our military will sternly retaliate based on a firm S. Korea-US combined defense posture," Cho was quoted as saying.

Signed on Sept. 19, 2018, the suspended deal included setting up a land buffer zone, where artillery drills and regiment-level field maneuvers are to be suspended, and maritime buffer zones, where artillery firing and naval drills are to be banned.

It also designated no-fly zones near the border to prevent accidental aircraft clashes.

Following the suspension, Seoul will be able to carry out drills to bolster front-line defenses, with respective units now allowed to draw up training plans near the Military Demarcation Line and its northwestern border islands.

The suspension will also allow South Korea to restart loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts toward the North, a key tool for psychological warfare involving criticism of the Kim Jong-un regime's human rights abuses, news and K-pop songs, which had prompted angry responses from Pyongyang.

The agency cited an unnamed unification ministry official as saying that Seoul still remains open to dialogue with Pyongyang.

Last November, North Korea ended the five-year-old military pact that aimed at lowering military tensions and the decision by Pyongyang came amid heightening military activities on the Korean Peninsula where the US has closed ranks with Seoul and Japan.

In February, the North Korean parliament voted to end all economic cooperation agreements with South Korea.