South Korea threatens North Korea: We will cancel the military agreement if there is another airspace violation

That it will consider suspending the power agreement of a military nature that Seoul and Pyongyang had signed in 2018 in case North Korea “violates” its airspace again South Korea announced on Wednesday (4/1) South Korean President Yoon Seok-gil.

Yoon Sok-gil also earlier asked his national security advisers to “consider suspending the September 19 military agreement if the North Korea proceed to new challenges by violating our airspace,” the spokeswoman for the South Korean presidency told the press.

The agreement, which was concluded in 2018, during a meeting in Pyongyangwas intended, as reported by the Athens News Agency, to reduce tensions along the strictly guarded borders of the two states by creating maritime “safety zones”.

At the time, the parties had agreed to “stop various military high schools against the other party along the military demarcation line” that separates North and South Korea. But Pyongyang repeatedly violated that agreement throughout 2022.

Mr. Yun also called for “large-scale production by the end of the year of small-sized drones that will be difficult to detect” and the creation of a unit with multi-purpose UAVs so that his country can acquire “overwhelming counterattack capability.”

Abandoning the 2018 deal “would increase the risk of higher military tensions and actual border conflict,” Hong Min of the Korea Institute for National Unification told AFP, adding that its existence “prevented a major military conflict” and warned that the situation would be very “different” if President Yun had “formally ended” its power. .

In 2022, North Korea repeatedly opened fire with its artillery on the maritime “safe zones” established by the agreement.

Last week, Pyongyang sent five UAVs into South Korean airspace, one of which reached the borders of the capital Seoul.

These violations have prompted South Korean lawmakers from the ruling party to multiply their calls for the 2018 bilateral agreement to be abandoned.

After the breach by North Korean drones, the first incident of this nature in five years, the defense ministry apologized that the military was unable to shoot down a single one, despite hastily landing fighter jets and helicopters.