SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea summoned Russia’s ambassador on Friday to protest a new defense agreement with North Korea as vague threats and brief, seemingly accidental incursions by North Korean troops increase tensions on the border.
Early Friday, Kim Jong Un, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, issued vague threats of retaliation after South Korean activists flew balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets over the border, and South Korean troops said a day earlier they had fired warning shots to repel North Korean soldiers who briefly crossed the enemy’s land border for the third time this month.
This comes two days after Moscow and Pyongyang signed the agreement. Pledge mutual defense assistance If either side is attacked, Seoul will Consider providing weapons to Ukraine To combat Russian aggression.
South Korea’s Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-gyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgi Zinoviev to protest the agreement between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un and called on Moscow to immediately halt its suspected military cooperation with Pyongyang.
South Korean diplomat Kim stressed that any cooperation that directly or indirectly supports North Korea’s military buildup violates UN Security Council resolutions and poses a threat to South Korea’s security, and warned that it would affect South Korea’s relations with Russia.
The Russian embassy quoted Zinoviev as saying to South Korean officials that it would not tolerate any attempts to “threaten or blackmail” Russia and that the agreement between South Korea and North Korea was not targeted at any specific third country. South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Zinoviev promised to convey South Korea’s concerns to his superiors in Moscow.
A leaflet distribution campaign by South Korean civil society activists in recent weeks has led to Cold War-style psychological warfare Along the North-South border.
South Korean civil society activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said they had launched 20 balloons carrying 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks containing South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 US dollar bills from the South Korean border town of Paju on Thursday night.
Analysts say Pyongyang is outraged by the documents, fearing they could undermine morale among front-line troops and civilians and ultimately weaken Kim Jong Un’s grip on power.
In a statement carried by North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency, a senior foreign policy official for Kim Jong Un’s brother, Kim Yo Jong, called the activists “defector scum” and made what appeared to be a threat of retaliation.
“Obviously, if you do something that you were warned not to do, you will face things that you didn’t have to do,” she said, without specifying how North Korea might respond.
North Korea has launched more than 1,000 balloons, dumping tons of garbage on South Korea, breaking roof tiles and windows, and causing other property damage following leafleting by South Korean activists. Kim Yo Jong has previously suggested balloons might become North Korea’s standard response to leafleting, saying she would respond by “scattering dozens of times more garbage than what is being scattered on us.”
In response, South Korea resumed Anti-North Korea propaganda broadcasts Military loudspeakers were installed on the border for the first time in years, and in a separate state media statement, Kim Yo Jong warned that Seoul was “creating a harbinger of a very dangerous situation”.
Tensions between the two Koreas are at their highest in years as Kim Jong Un accelerates his nuclear weapons and missile development and works with Russian President Vladimir Putin to bolster his regional position amid a confrontation with the U.S.-led West.
South Korea, which has a well-equipped military and is a growing arms exporter backed by the U.S., has said it is considering stepping up its support for Ukraine in retaliation. Seoul has already joined U.S.-led sanctions against Moscow and has provided humanitarian and other assistance but has not directly provided weapons, citing a longstanding policy not to supply weapons to countries involved in conflicts.
Putin told reporters in Hanoi, Vietnam on Thursday that supplying arms to Ukraine would be a “very big mistake” and said there was “no need to worry” about the agreement if South Korea was not planning to invade North Korea.
South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said Foreign Minister Cho Tae-ryol discussed the new pact in separate telephone calls with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Japanese Foreign Minister Kamikawa Yoko on Friday. The diplomats agreed that the pact poses a serious threat to regional peace and stability and vowed to strengthen trilateral cooperation to address challenges posed by Moscow-Pyongyang alignment, Cho’s ministry statement said.
North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of Kim Jong Un’s authoritarian rule and to efforts to inform its people through foreign news and other media.
When South Korea resumed loudspeaker broadcasts in 2015 for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired artillery shells across the border, prompting South Korea to fire back, according to South Korean officials. No casualties were reported.
South Korea’s military said there were indications that North Korea had installed its own speakers on the border but that they were not yet activated.
In the latest border incident, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said several North Korean soldiers were engaged in unspecified construction work and briefly crossed the military demarcation line separating the two countries around 11 a.m. Thursday.
The South Korean military made a warning broadcast and fired warning shots before the North Korean forces withdrew. The Joint Chiefs of Staff did not immediately release details, including why they released the information a day late.
South Korea’s military has said it believes the recent border incursions were unintentional because North Korean soldiers did not retaliate and retreated after firing warning shots.
The Confederate North Korea has deployed large numbers of troops to frontline areas. South Korea has undertaken apparent efforts to fortify its side of the border, including building what appear to be anti-tank barriers, reinforcing roads and laying landmines, which it believes are likely aimed at preventing North Korean civilians and soldiers from fleeing into the South.
