Latest news with #militaryagreement
Fox News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
South Korea to end some military activity on border to ease tensions with North Korea
South Korea's new liberal president announced Friday his plans to end some military activities along its border with North Korea and restore a 2018 military agreement with its neighbor in an effort to reduce border tensions. Speaking on the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, President Lee Jae Myung said he would bring back the so-called September 19 Comprehensive Military Agreement, a de-escalation measure reached between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea's former liberal President Moon Jae-in. "Everyone knows that the long-drawn-out hostility benefits people in neither of the two Koreas," Lee said during his speech. The agreement ended some military activities at the border between the two countries, including creating buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent fighting. It also ended military drills near the border and removed some guard posts along the Demilitarized Zone. The deal was signed at an inter-Korean summit in 2018, but eventually fell apart as cross-border tensions ensued. Lee called on the North to respond to Seoul's efforts to rebuild trust and revive dialogue, although how Pyongyang will respond remains unclear. In recent weeks, top North Korean officials have dismissed other moves by Lee to ease tension between the two countries. The South's new president pointed to his government's efforts to lower tensions, including stopping the launch of balloons floated by activists with anti-North Korea leaflets and the halting of loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border. "In particular, to prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the September 19 Military Agreement," Lee said. "I hope that North Korea will reciprocate our efforts to restore trust and revive dialogue," he added. In June of last year, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced a complete suspension of the military pact after North Korea sent hundreds of rubbish-stuffed balloons across the border. The North had left the pact in November 2023.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Factbox-South Korea to restore pact curbing military activity on North Korean border
(Reuters) -South Korea intends to restore an agreement to suspend some military activity along the border with North Korea, President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday, as his government seeks to improve relations between neighbours still technically at war. The 2018 military accord was designed to curb the risk of inadvertent clashes, but broke down after a spike in tensions. WHAT HAPPENED IN 2018? The so-called Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) signed between the two Koreas was the most substantive deal to result from months of historic meetings between leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in. On September 19, 2018, South Korea's defence minister and his North Korean counterpart signed the CMA in the North's capital, Pyongyang, accompanied by polite applause from the onlooking leaders. Under the CMA, both countries agreed to "completely cease all hostile acts against each other" and implement military confidence-building measures in air, land and sea domains. The measures included the two sides ending military drills near the border, banning live-fire exercises in certain areas, the imposition of no-fly zones, the removal of some guard posts along the Demilitarized Zone, and maintaining hotlines. On the ground, both sides agreed to completely cease artillery drills and field training within 5 km (3 miles) of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between the countries. At sea, they installed covers on the barrels of naval guns and coastal artillery and closed gun ports in a buffer zone along the sea border. MILITARY DEAL FALLS APART With inter-Korean and denuclearisation talks long stalled, the military accord started to fracture in recent years amid drills and shows of force along the fortified border between the Koreas as they accused the other of breaches. North Korea's launch of a spy satellite in 2023 further ratcheted up tensions on the Korean peninsula, and the countries walked away from the confidence-building pact. South Korea's National Security Council that year moved to "suspend the effect of Article 1, Clause 3" establishing no-fly zones close to the border in the 2018 military agreement, enabling Seoul to restore reconnaissance and surveillance activities along the border. South Korea's military then restarted aerial surveillance in border areas, the defence ministry said. North Korea in return said its army would "never be bound" by the pact, ripping up the agreement and vowing to restore all military measures it had halted under the deal. In June 2024, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a complete suspension of the military pact in response to North Korea's move to send hundreds of rubbish-stuffed balloons across the border. Later that year, as hostilities increased state-run news agency KCNA said North Korea amended its constitution to designate the South as a "hostile state". HOW WILL PYONGYANG RESPOND? President Lee, who won a snap election in June, has sought to re-engage Pyongyang after a period of cross-border tension and shown a willingness to return to dialogue. He touted on Friday his government's efforts to ease tensions, including halting the launch of balloons floated by activists with anti-North Korea leaflets and dismantling loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border. How Pyongyang might respond remains unclear. Top North Korean officials have in recent weeks dismissed moves taken by Lee's new liberal government to ease tensions. Some analysts are also sceptical about the short-term prospects of a favourable response from North Korea to such overtures. Solve the daily Crossword
Reuters
4 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
South Korea to restore pact curbing military activity on North Korean border
Aug 15 (Reuters) - South Korea intends to restore an agreement to suspend some military activity along the border with North Korea, President Lee Jae Myung said on Friday, as his government seeks to improve relations between neighbours still technically at war. The 2018 military accord was designed to curb the risk of inadvertent clashes, but broke down after a spike in tensions. The so-called Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) signed between the two Koreas was the most substantive deal to result from months of historic meetings between leader Kim Jong Un and then-South Korean President Moon Jae-in. On September 19, 2018, South Korea's defence minister and his North Korean counterpart signed the CMA in the North's capital, Pyongyang, accompanied by polite applause from the onlooking leaders. Under the CMA, both countries agreed to "completely cease all hostile acts against each other" and implement military confidence-building measures in air, land and sea domains. The measures included the two sides ending military drills near the border, banning live-fire exercises in certain areas, the imposition of no-fly zones, the removal of some guard posts along the Demilitarized Zone, and maintaining hotlines. On the ground, both sides agreed to completely cease artillery drills and field training within 5 km (3 miles) of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between the countries. At sea, they installed covers on the barrels of naval guns and coastal artillery and closed gun ports in a buffer zone along the sea border. With inter-Korean and denuclearisation talks long stalled, the military accord started to fracture in recent years amid drills and shows of force along the fortified border between the Koreas as they accused the other of breaches. North Korea's launch of a spy satellite in 2023 further ratcheted up tensions on the Korean peninsula, and the countries walked away from the confidence-building pact. South Korea's National Security Council that year moved to "suspend the effect of Article 1, Clause 3" establishing no-fly zones close to the border in the 2018 military agreement, enabling Seoul to restore reconnaissance and surveillance activities along the border. South Korea's military then restarted aerial surveillance in border areas, the defence ministry said. North Korea in return said its army would "never be bound" by the pact, ripping up the agreement and vowing to restore all military measures it had halted under the deal. In June 2024, former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a complete suspension of the military pact in response to North Korea's move to send hundreds of rubbish-stuffed balloons across the border. Later that year, as hostilities increased state-run news agency KCNA said North Korea amended its constitution to designate the South as a "hostile state". HOW WILL PYONGYANG RESPOND? President Lee, who won a snap election in June, has sought to re-engage Pyongyang after a period of cross-border tension and shown a willingness to return to dialogue. He touted on Friday his government's efforts to ease tensions, including halting the launch of balloons floated by activists with anti-North Korea leaflets and dismantling loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts across the border. How Pyongyang might respond remains unclear. Top North Korean officials have in recent weeks dismissed moves taken by Lee's new liberal government to ease tensions. Some analysts are also sceptical about the short-term prospects of a favourable response from North Korea to such overtures.
Arab News
4 days ago
- Politics
- Arab News
South Korea's president vows to restore 2018 inter-Korean military agreement to ease tensions
SEOUL: South Korea's new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, said Friday he will seek to restore a 2018 military agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing border tensions and urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul's efforts to rebuild trust and revive on the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee's overture came amid soaring tensions fueled by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's nuclear ambitions and deepening ties with Russia over the war in 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between Kim and South Korea's former liberal President Moon Jae-in, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent Korea's previous conservative government suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea's launches of trash-laden balloons toward the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement.'To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the (2018) Sept. 19 military agreement,' Lee said in a televised said his government affirms 'our respect for the North's current system' and that the wealthier South 'will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts.'Lee said South Korea remains committed to an international push to denuclearize North Korea and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul. Amid a prolonged diplomatic stalemate with its rivals, Kim's government has made clear it has no intention of giving up the weapons it sees as its strongest guarantee of survival and would reject any future talks on denuclearization.'Denuclearization is a complex and difficult task that cannot be resolved quickly,' Lee said. 'However, inter-Korean and US-North Korea dialogue as well as international cooperation will help us approach a peaceful resolution.'Conciliatory tone toward TokyoJapan's defeat in World War II liberated Korea from colonial rule, but the peninsula was then divided into a US-backed, capitalist South and a Soviet-supported, socialist North — a separation cemented by the devastating 1950–53 Korean whose speech came days before he plans to travel to Japan for a summit with Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, took a conciliatory tone toward Tokyo, calling for the fellow US allies to overcome grievances rooted in Japan's brutal colonial rule and develop future-oriented ties. However, he noted that some historical issues remain unresolved and called on the government in Tokyo to 'squarely face up to our painful history and strive to maintain trust between our two countries.'Lee's meeting with Ishiba will come just before he flies to Washington for a meeting with US President Donald Trump over trade and defense issues, a setup that underscores how Trump's push to reset global trade and US security commitments is drawing the often-feuding neighbors eager to improve ties with Seoul, has acknowledged Japan's wartime aggression and has shown more empathy toward Asian victims than his recent Korea so far dismissive about Lee's overturesLee, who took office after winning an early election in June following the ouster of his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol over a brief imposition of martial law in December, has taken steps to repair ties with the North, including the removal of South Korean frontline loudspeakers that Yoon's government had used to blast anti-North Korean propaganda and K-pop across the unclear whether North Korea would respond to Lee's overture. Expressing anger over Yoon's hard-line policies and expansion of South Korean-US military exercises, Kim last year declared that North Korea was abandoning long-standing goals of a peaceful unification with South Korea and rewrote the North's constitution to mark the South as a permanent speech came a day after Kim's powerful sister mocked his government for clinging to hopes of renewed diplomacy between the war-divided rivals, and misleading the public by falsely claiming the North had removed its own frontline speakers as a reciprocal gesture toward the Yo Jong also reiterated previous North Korean statements that it has no immediate interest in reviving long-stalled negotiations with Washington and Seoul, citing an upcoming joint military exercise between the allies as proof of their continued hostility toward say North Korea clearly sees no urgency to resume diplomacy with South Korea or the United States, remaining focused on its alignment with Russia. Since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Pyongyang has made Moscow the priority of its foreign policy, sending thousands of troops and large quantities of military equipment, including artillery and missiles, to help fuel the his own speech marking Korea's liberation on Thursday, Kim Jong Un praised the 'infinite might' of the country's ties with Russia at an event in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang attended by a Russian government delegation. His speech, published by North Korean state media on Friday, made no mention of Washington or Seoul.
South China Morning Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- South China Morning Post
Seoul rules out unification of North Korea by ‘absorption', pushes for peace
South Korea 's new liberal President, Lee Jae-myung, said on Friday he will seek to restore a 2018 military agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing border tensions and urged Pyongyang to respond to Seoul's efforts to rebuild trust and revive dialogue. Speaking on the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japanese colonial rule, Lee's overture came amid soaring tensions fuelled by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un 's nuclear ambitions and deepening ties with Russia over the war in Ukraine. The 2018 military agreement, reached during a brief period of diplomacy between Kim and South Korea's former liberal president Moon Jae-in, created buffer zones on land and sea and no-fly zones above the border to prevent clashes. South Korea's previous conservative government suspended the deal in 2024, citing tensions over North Korea 's launches of trash-laden balloons towards the South, and moved to resume frontline military activities and propaganda campaigns. The step came after North Korea had already declared it would no longer abide by the agreement. 'To prevent accidental clashes between South and North Korea and to build military trust, we will take proactive, gradual steps to restore the [2018] September 19 military agreement,' Lee said in a televised speech. Lee said his government affirms 'our respect for the North's current system' and that the wealthier South 'will not pursue any form of unification by absorption and has no intention of engaging in hostile acts'. Lee said South Korea remains committed to an international push to denuclearise North Korea and urged Pyongyang to resume dialogue with Washington and Seoul. Amid a prolonged diplomatic stalemate with its rivals, Kim's government has made clear it has no intention of giving up the weapons it sees as its strongest guarantee of survival and would reject any future talks on denuclearisation.
