Recall that the agreement provides for the disarmament of checkpoints on the inter-Korean border, a ban on conducting exercises in the immediate vicinity of the border, the creation of buffer zones on land and sea and other measures. These restrictions on military activities are intended to make the Republic of Korea and the DPRK less disruptive from a military perspective.
However, as the South Korean government now notes, the agreement has become obsolete and has no practical meaning, since the DPRK does not comply with it, conducting exercises, firing near the border and once even sending drones in southern airspace. . According to the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Kazakhstan, between the time of signing and the end of 2022, the DPRK deliberately violated these agreements 17 times, of which 15 cases occurred last year 2022.
In this regard, at the highest levels in South Korea, talk began about the need to abandon this agreement. So, in January this year, the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan Yun Seok-Yol did not rule out such a possibility, giving instructions to clarify the conditions under which the agreements could be canceled. The reason for this statement was the already mentioned drone invasion, which occurred at the end of last year and caused a sensation in South Korea.
Other high-ranking representatives of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan are now speaking in the same direction. Thus, Shin Won-sik, recently nominated for the post of defense minister, declared: “From a personal point of view, I believe that it is necessary to abandon this agreement.” According to the MP, who in the coming days will become the head of the military department of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the agreements are much more beneficial for the DPRK, because they deprive the southerners of a significant part of their advantages in terms of recognition. and surveillance of the North. Moreover, there is no point in adhering to such restrictions if the DPRK itself constantly violates them.
The Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is essentially a specialized department for North Korea, speaks similarly. “We do not need an agreement that only we observe and which the North regularly violates,” Kim In-ae, deputy press secretary of the Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Kazakhstan, said recently during a press briefing.
However, not all countries in the South agree with the proposed tough approach, believing that it is necessary not to officially cancel the treaty. “This agreement guaranteed to a certain extent stability in the Northern Yellow Sea divide area… In a situation where the inter-Korean dialogue is completely frozen, a demonstrative refusal of the agreement could provoke clashes” , said Park Wang Gon, a professor at the Department of North Korean Studies at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul, who made his position known to the local Yonhap news agency.
It is easy to see that the majority of the DPRK’s treaty violations took place in 2022, which is when the hard-line conservatives began to rule South Korea. According to Pyongyang’s logic, it is the South itself that is responsible for this and was the first to violate the agreements, deciding to resume and sharply intensify joint military maneuvers with the United States directed against the North.
It is worth noting that over the past more than half a century, the South and the North have concluded a total of 260 agreements, treaties and other documents binding on both sides. Even though most of the documents are either outdated or simply not respected, until now the South has never officially canceled treaties with the DPRK. Judging by the mood of the current political leadership of the Republic of Korea, everything seems to indicate that Seoul will soon break this tradition and reverse the “measures to reduce military tensions of 2018.” Both the South and the North have their own logic and their own answers to the question: “Who is most responsible for the real non-functioning of the document?” At the same time, both sides have chosen a path of confrontation towards each other and do not intend to give up the hard line of pressure. All this makes it even more likely that the inter-Korean agreement on measures to reduce military tensions will be canceled in the near future.
