South Korea’s ruling party on Wednesday threatened to nullify the end of the hostilities pact reached with Pyongyang in 2018 if North Korea conducts another nuclear test.
North Korea fired a new short-range ballistic missile this morning.
It was the ninth launch in 20 days and involved air and artillery maneuvers along the border with South Korea, which conducted live fire drills on Thursday.
The artillery fire (near the border) comes after “continuous provocations over the past three weeks” and constitutes “a clear violation of the military accord of September 19 (2018),” said People’s Power party spokesman Yang Kum-hee. . (PPP) in the government in South Korea.
The September 19 agreement, as the joint statement signed in 2018 is known after the summit between the South Korean head of state and the North Korean leader, was designed to facilitate hostile military activities between the two countries.
“If North Korea conducts another nuclear test, we should seriously consider canceling the joint declaration on the denuclearization of the peninsula and the September 19 agreement,” Yang Kum-hee said.
South Korea’s and the United States’ intelligence services insist that the Pyongyang regime is ready to conduct a nuclear test for the first time since 2017.
The PPP spokesman blamed the former South Korean government’s proximity policies, citing what he considered a “false spectacle of peace” as reasons that intensified Pyongyang’s provocations, and urged North Korea to stop the “hostility”.
In response to firings in recent weeks, including a ballistic missile that flew over Japanese territory, Seoul today adopted the first unilateral measures against Pyongyang in the past five years.
The restrictions affect 15 North Korean personalities and 16 institutions associated with the country’s war development program, as well as affect trade in materials that could potentially be used to manufacture weapons.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol admitted he had asked the United States for increased US military deployment in the region in the face of rising tensions and signs of another North Korean nuclear test.
Japan today deemed the frequency of missile launches by North Korea “a provocation” and admitted it was considering a response.
Source: DN
