South Korea will suspend a 2018 joint military agreement with North Korea amid rising tensions in the region, the National Security Council (NSC) decided on Monday.
The NSC had decided to suspend the agreement “until mutual trust between the two Koreas is restored,” President Yoon Suk Yeol’s office announced. A proposal on the suspension will be submitted to the cabinet on Tuesday.
Suspension of the agreement, which was terminated by North Korea in November, will allow military exercises near the demarcation line separating the two countries to resume, according to information provided. Under the agreement, the exercises had been scaled back.
In September 2018, the two sides agreed on a series of measures as part of a temporary rapprochement aimed at preventing incidents along the heavily defended border.
The launch of a North Korean spy satellite prompted Seoul to partially suspend the agreement in November. Pyongyang responded by declaring it would withdraw completely.
The NSC’s decision on Monday follows a warning from South Korea after North Korean balloons containing waste were sent across the border. The South Korean military also accused North Korea of jamming the GPS satellite navigation system in the border area for five days in a row.
Pyongyang described its balloons as a response to propaganda flyers sent across the border by South Korean organizations. On Sunday, the company said it planned to temporarily halt the balloon campaign.
