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South Korea to suspend inter-Korean accord if North violates border again

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol orders establishment of drone unit, mass production of small, hard-to-detect drones within year.

AP

President Yoon Suk-yeol last week called for a stronger air defense and high-tech stealth drones to better monitor North Korea, a day after it accused North Korea of flying drones across the rivals’ tense border for the first time in five years.

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk-yeol had ordered the suspension of the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement with North Korea if it again violates the country's borders, local media reported.

Yoon issued the orders during a high-level meeting on Wednesday where the Defense Ministry and senior military officials briefed him on the North Korean drone incursion into South Korean territory last week, Yonhap News Agency reported.

“President Yoon Suk-yeol instructed the National Security Office to consider suspending the September 19 military agreement in the event North Korea carries out another provocation violating our territory,” the agency quoted senior presidential secretary for press affairs, Kim Eun-hye, as saying.

He was referring to a 2018 agreement between the two countries, which created buffer zones along land and sea boundaries and no-fly zones above the border.

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Drone crises

The president also instructed the Defense Ministry to establish a joint drone unit for surveillance and build a system enabling the mass production of small, hard-to-detect drones within a year and push to develop v drones before the end of the year, Kim said.

Last week, drones from North Korea crossed the border into the South prompting Seoul to scramble jets and fire warning shots in response.

Two major airports were shut down by South Korea as the drones crossed the Military Demarcation Line, which separates the two Koreas, and were spotted flying in areas in Gimpo, Ganghwa Island, and Paju.

Seoul acknowledged “limits in detecting and striking small surveillance drones” as the South Korean military publicly apologized over the major security issue.