South Korea cancels agreement with North Korea following dispute over trash-filled balloons

South Korea suspended a 2018 military agreement with North Korea on Tuesday after promising “unbearable” retaliation for North Korea’s trash balloon campaign.

The suspension of the pact will allow South Korea to resume “military training in the areas around the Military Demarcation Line” and enable “more sufficient and immediate responses to North Korean provocations,” according to a statement by South Korea’s National Security Council.

“The responsibility for this situation lies solely with North Korea,” Cho Chang-rae, South Korea’s deputy defense minister for policy, said. “If North Korea launches additional provocations, our military, in conjunction with the solid South Korea-U.S. defense posture, will punish North Korea swiftly, strongly, and to the end.”

The move comes after North Korea launched hundreds of balloons carrying wastepaper, cigarette butts, manure, and other waste into South Korea over the past week. The balloons did not contain any dangerous materials, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, although some worried that North Korea might use balloons to distribute more harmful substances in the future.

North Korea said it launched the trash-carrying balloons in response to a South Korean balloon campaign. For years, South Korean activists have floated balloons containing political messaging, including anti-Pyongyang leaflets and hard drives containing South Korean dramas, K-pop music, and world news, into North Korea.

North Korea said on Sunday that it would stop sending the trash balloons across the border.

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“We made the ROK (Republic of Korea) clans get enough experience of how much unpleasant they feel and how much effort is needed to remove the scattered wastepaper,” Kim Kang Il, a North Korean vice defense minister, said in a statement.

South Korea then said on Tuesday that it would “revive all military activities” that had previously been limited under the 2018 agreement, which North Korea already suspended last year. The activities will continue “until mutual trust between the South and the North is restored,” Cho said.