2 days ago
S. Korea to end some military activity on border with North
SEOUL: South Korea will end some military activities along its border with North Korea, President Lee Jae-myung said, in his government's latest effort to improve ties between the neighbours still technically at war.
In a speech yesterday to mark the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee said he would restore the so-called Sept 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement, a de-escalation measure that halted some military activities at the border between North Korea and South Korea.
The pact was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, but broke down as cross-border tensions spiked.
How Pyongyang will respond to Seoul's latest overture remains unclear.
Top North Korean officials in recent weeks have dismissed other moves taken by Lee, a liberal who won a snap election in June, to ease tension between the two countries.
The Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty and entrenched the peninsula's division.
'Everyone knows that the long drawn-out hostility benefits people in neither of the two Koreas,' Lee said in Seoul.
Lee cited his government's efforts to lower tensions, including halting the launch of balloons floated by activists with anti-North Korea leaflets and dismantling loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the heavily militarised border. — Reuters
