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| President Yoon Suk-yeol speaks during a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul, Tuesday. Yoon said Wednesday that he will review whether to suspend a 2018 military pact signed between the two Koreas if the North intrudes inter-Korean border again. Yonhap |
By Jung Min-ho
President Yoon Suk-yeol said Wednesday that he will consider suspending a 2018 military pact signed between the two Koreas if North Korea violates the inter-Korean border again.
The warning comes a week after five North Korean drones entered the South's airspace in a clear violation of the pact, under which the two sides agreed to cease hostile activities and take steps to build military trust.
According to a high-ranking official at the presidential office, Yoon said there are no reasons for South Korea to adhere to the deal, which the North frequently ignores by testing missiles or sending unmanned aerial vehicles.
"As the commander-in-chief, Yoon called for stern readiness against such provocations so that no citizen would feel unsafe," the official told reporters. "We hope there will be no more provocations by North Korea."
At a meeting with security and defense officials, Yoon also told Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup to expedite the process of launching a full-fledged drone unit, improve the radar system to detect small-size drones and finish the development of a stealth drone by the end of this year, the official said.
On Dec. 26, South Korea's military detected the North Korean drones entering its airspace. One traveled as far as northern Seoul, while the other four hovered in and around Ganghwa Island off the west coast. The military responded by sending attack helicopters, but failed to destroy any of them.
Yoon criticized the response, telling the military to retaliate by sending South Korean drones to the North. While visiting the Daejeon-based Agency for Defense Development three days later, Yoon said strong military capabilities are the most effective deterrence against North Korea and met scientists developing new weapons including drones.
The military pact was signed in Pyongyang by former Defense Minister Song Young-moo and his North Korean counterpart No Kwang-chol when there were high hopes of inter-Korean cooperation and peace.
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| North Korea's military conducts a weapons test at an unspecified location in North Korea, Dec. 31, in this photo released on Jan. 1. Yonhap |
Under the agreement, the two sides must not engage in any hostile activity that would raise tensions. That includes border trespassing, large-scale military exercises, any operations for reconnaissance and field training such as firing artillery within 5 kilometers of the Armistice Line, also known as the Military Demarcation Line. But the deal has remained in name only. Soon after a fruitless summit with Washington in February 2019, Pyongyang conducted drills near the line and resumed weapons tests.
At a meeting with the defense minister at the National Assembly after the drone invasion, some lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party, including Han Ki-ho and Sung Il-jong, said South Korea no longer has to abide by the pact that the North has repeatedly violated.
However, Rep. Joo Ho-young, its floor leader, took a more cautious approach by saying that officially scrapping the agreement might be premature and inappropriate as it could fuel tensions.
In the face of intensifying North Korean nuclear threats, officials in South Korea and the U.S. are reportedly discussing table-top exercises in a potential joint response to a range of scenarios, including the North's ― perhaps imminent ― nuclear weapons test.
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