South Korea to suspend military pact with North over trash balloons

South Korea plans to suspend a military agreement signed with North Korea in 2018 aimed at easing tensions, the presidential office said on Monday.

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea plans to suspend a military agreement signed with North Korea in 2018 aimed at easing tensions, the presidential office said Monday, after Seoul warned of a strong response to balloons launched by Pyongyang carrying trash to the South.

North Korea has launched hundreds of balloons carried by wind across the border that dropped trash throughout South Korea, which called it a provocation and rejected Pyongyang’s claim that it was done to inconvenience its neighbor.

A balloon believed to have been sent by North Korea is seen over a rice field in Cheorwon, South Korea, on Wednesday. Yonhap News Agency via Reuters The National Security Council said it would raise the plan to suspend the entirety of the military agreement for approval by the cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday.

Suspending the agreement will pave the way for the South to conduct training near the military border and take “sufficient and immediate measures” in response to North Korea’s provocation, the Council said in a statement.

It did not elaborate what those measures might be.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/south-korea-suspend-military-pact-north-trash-balloons-rcna155131

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