South Korea made a big decision on Monday, saying it would pause a deal with North Korea. This decision came as a punishment because North Korea launched balloons carrying trash over the border into South Korea.
Even though North Korea said it would stop its balloon campaign, South Korea still decided to suspend the deal.
Over the past few days, North Korea sent hundreds of balloons filled with trash and manure to South Korea. This was in response to previous leafleting campaigns by South Korean civilians. South Korea promised to take strong action in return, but then North Korea surprised everyone by saying it would stop sending balloons.
On Monday, South Korea’s national security council said they would suspend an agreement made in 2018. This agreement was supposed to make things better between the two Koreas. They want to pause it until both countries trust each other again.
This decision will allow South Korea to do military exercises near the border with North Korea and respond quickly to any bad actions by North Korea. They will talk about this decision more on Tuesday to get approval.
Some people think South Korea needed to suspend the deal so they can start broadcasting anti-North Korea messages again. They used to do this by playing loud music and sharing news from outside the country using big speakers near the border.
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These broadcasts made North Korea uncomfortable because their people don’t usually hear news from other places.
The 2018 agreement was made during a time when the leaders of North and South Korea, Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong Un, were trying to get along better. It said both countries should stop doing things that make the other one mad, like broadcasting bad messages or sending leaflets. But it didn’t say anything about civilians sending leaflets.
So, South Korean activists kept sending balloons with leaflets, USB sticks filled with South Korean shows, and even US dollars into North Korea. This made North Korea really angry, and they even shot at some of the balloons and broke a building that South Korea helped build in North Korea.
This 2018 deal has been in trouble for a while now. Things got worse after North Korea launched a spy satellite last November. Both Koreas did things that went against the agreement. South Korea started watching North Korea from planes again, and North Korea put up guard posts along the border again.
Since last Tuesday, South Korea found about 1,000 balloons from North Korea. They were carrying gross stuff like cigarette butts and waste paper, but nothing dangerous. Then, on Sunday night, a North Korean official said they would stop sending balloons because they saw how upset it made South Korea. But they warned they’d do it again if South Korea starts sending balloons first.
Experts think North Korea’s balloon campaign is trying to make South Korea’s government look bad. They’ve been doing more weapons tests lately, trying to get stronger and have more power in future talks with the US.
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