President Yoon Consider The 2018 Military Pakta Suspension If North Korean Drones Enter South Korea Again

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol. (Wikimedia Commons/DEMA/Yang Dong Wook)

JAKARTA - South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol said he would consider suspending the 2018 inter-Korean military pact if North Korea again violated Seoul's airspace, the president's office said Wednesday.

President Yoon commented after being briefed on countermeasures against North Korean drones violating South Korean territory last week, calling for building extraordinary response capabilities that exceeded proportional levels, according to his press secretary, Kim Eun-hye.

"During the meeting, he instructed the national security office to consider suspending the validity of the military agreement, if North Korea made another provocation to attack our territory," Kim told a briefing.

The 2018 deal was sealed on the sidelines of a summit between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and then South Korean President Moon Jae-in, calling for a halt to "all hostile acts", creating a no-fly zone around the border, removing landmines and guard posts inside a heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. The government has not said how many mines and posts have been removed, citing security concerns.

LEAVing the pact could mean the return of the guard post, direct firing exercises in the former no-flying zone and propaganda broadcasts across the border, all of which drew angry responses from Pyongyang before the pact.

Inter-Korean relations have been tested for decades, but have grown even more tense since Yoon took office in May, pledging to give Pyongyang a tougher line.

During last year's election campaign, Yoon said Pyongyang had repeatedly violated the agreement with the missile launch, warning he might cancel it.

After taking office, he said that the fate of the pact depended on North Korea's actions.

Earlier, President Yoon had criticized the military's handling of the drone incident, in part blaming the previous government's dependence on the 2018 pact. He urged the military to be ready to retaliate, even if it meant " neighboring the escalation".

In addition, President Yoon ordered the defense minister to launch a comprehensive drone unit that carries out multipurpose missions, including surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, as well as setting up a system to mass produce small drones that are difficult to detect within a year, Kim said.

"He also called for the acceleration of the development of stealth drones this year and immediately built a drone killing system," he continued.

The South Korean army has operated two drone squadrons in its Army Operations Command since 2018, but they are primarily designed to prepare for war in the future.