Military agreement fractures as tensions rise with North Korea
South Korea said on Wednesday it would suspend parts of a 2018 military agreement with North Korea designed to curb the risk of inadvertent clashes along their shared border, in response to Pyongyang's claim to have successfully launched a spy satellite.
Among the concrete steps stemming from the move, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said South Korea would immediately resume reconnaissance of the North's forces in border areas. Such surveillance had been curtailed under the pact, South Korean officials said.
WHAT HAPPENED IN 2018?
The so-called Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA) signed between the two Koreas in 2018 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 Sept. 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» that are the source of military tension and conflict, by implementing military confidence-building measures in the 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 kilometres (3 miles) of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between the countries.
At sea, the two sides installed covers on the barrels of naval guns and coastal artillery and closed gun ports in a
