Seoul will completely suspend a military agreement concluded with North Korea in 2018 to reduce tensions between the two countries, South Korea's National Security Council announced today after North Korea sent hundreds of garbage balloons.
Seoul already partially suspended the agreement last year when North Korea launched a spy satellite, but the National Security Council said today it had asked the government to suspend it completely "until mutual trust between the two Koreas is re-established."
On Sunday, North Korea sent nearly a thousand balloons filled with a variety of garbage from cigarette butts to animal feces to its South Korean neighbor, 600 of them on Sunday alone, according to Seoul.
Pyongyang said earlier that the aim of the "sincere gifts" was to respond to balloons that South Korea sends to the North with propaganda leaflets against leader Kim Jong Un.
South Korea described the North Korean action as "low" and "irrational".
The balloons, which did not contain dangerous substances, landed in the northern provinces of South Korea, including the capital Seoul and the neighboring Guenogi district, where together half of South Korea's population lives.
Pyongyang announced yesterday that it would temporarily "suspend" the sending of balloons with assurances that the "countermeasure" was effective.
The 2018 military agreement, signed during a period of thawing of relations between the two countries, which are technically still at war, aims to reduce tensions on the peninsula, especially along the shared border, which is under high security.
Seoul had already partially suspended the agreement in November last year in protest over the successful launch of a North Korean spy satellite, and North Korea has claimed it will no longer respect it at all.
South Korea's decision to completely suspend the military agreement needs to be approved by the government on Tuesday before it takes effect.
Relations between the two Koreas are at their lowest level in years, diplomacy has been virtually non-existent for a long time, and Kim Jong Un is ramping up his weapons tests and continuing to develop his weapons as South Korea moves closer to its main security ally, Washington.
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