South Korea to Halt Border Deal with North After It Sends Trash-Filled Balloons

  • Agreement was enacted in 2018 to ease military tensions
  • Pyongyang had already said it was scrapping the deal last year
Trash spilled from a balloon reportedly sent by North Korea, in Incheon, South Korea on June 2.Photographer: Im Sun-suk/Yonhap/AP Photo
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South Korea will suspend a 2018 agreement with North Korea aimed at reducing military tensions after Pyongyang sent nearly 1,000 trash-filled balloons across the border in what it called a campaign against “human scum.”

South Korea’s National Security Council decided at a meeting Monday to seek the 2018 deal’s suspension until trust between the two sides is restored, the council said in a statement. The suspension will allow South Korean troops to resume drills near the military demarcation line and take “more sufficient and immediate responses” to the North’s actions, it said.