(Seoul) South Korea’s military warned North Korea not to proceed with a planned launch of its spy satellite, suggesting Monday that Seoul could suspend an inter-Korean peace deal and resume front-line aerial surveillance in retaliation for a launch.
North Korea failed in its first two attempts to put a military spy satellite into orbit earlier this year and failed to fulfill its pledge to make a third attempt in October. South Korean officials said the delay was likely because North Korea is receiving Russian technological assistance and the North could conduct a launch in the coming days.
South Korean military officer Kang Hopil urged North Korea to immediately cancel its third launch attempt.
“Our military will take necessary measures to protect the lives and safety of the people if North Korea continues to launch a military spy satellite despite our warning,” Kang said in a televised statement.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said in an interview with state broadcaster KBS on Sunday that the launch was planned for later this month and that South Korean and U.S. authorities were monitoring the movements of North Korea.
The United Nations (UN) Security Council bans any satellite launches by North Korea because it considers them a disguised test of its missile technology. Kang said that while North Korea needs a spy satellite to improve its surveillance of South Korea, its launch is also aimed at strengthening its long-range missile program.
South Korea has accused North Korea of receiving Russian technology to boost its nuclear and other military capabilities in exchange for the supply of conventional weapons to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. Moscow and Pyongyang have rejected the so-called arms transfer deal as baseless, but both countries – locked in separate and prolonged security tensions with the United States – have openly pushed for expanded cooperation bilateral.
In September, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited Russia and met with President Vladimir Putin at the cosmodrome, Russia’s largest national launch center. When Russian state media asked Putin if his country would help North Korea build satellites, he replied that “that’s what we came here for.” The (North Korean) leader shows keen interest in rocket technology.”
Mr. Kang, the South Korean officer, did not specify what retaliatory measures South Korea might take if North Korea carried out a third launch. He strongly hinted, however, that these measures could include a suspension of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreements, forcing the two Koreas to suspend aerial surveillance activities and live-fire exercises along their tense border.
Mr. Kang claimed that North Korea had already violated the 2018 agreement several times. He cited the North’s destruction of an unoccupied inter-Korean liaison office in North Korea, launching drones into South Korean territory and holding shooting exercises along the maritime border.
“Despite the North’s repeated violations of the agreement, our military has patiently abided by the terms of the military agreement, but this has caused considerable problems in our military’s preparation,” Kang said.
It said South Korea had avoided conducting shooting exercises in a buffer zone created near the disputed western maritime border between the two countries. Kang said South Korea’s operation of aerial reconnaissance assets designed to monitor North Korea’s forward-deployed artillery guns and other equipment has also been significantly restricted due to the 2018 agreement.
The military agreement, reached during a short-lived rapprochement between South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, created buffer zones along land and sea borders, as well as no-fly zones over the border to avoid accidental clashes.
Relations between the rivals then became strained after the failure of expanded nuclear diplomacy between Kim and then-US President Donald Trump in 2019. North Korea has since focused on expanding its arsenal nuclear, which prompted the current conservative president of South Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol, to increase military exercises with the United States.