NORTH Korea said today it was suspending a five-year-old accord reached with South Korea to reduce military tensions, Yonhap reported – the latest retaliatory fallout over Pyongyang’s spy satellite launch.

“We will withdraw military measures taken to prevent military tensions and clashes in all areas such as land, sea and air, and will place strong armed forces and advanced military equipment in border areas,” the nuclear-armed North’s defence ministry said, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

The ministry said it “will not be restrained” by the 2018 agreement any longer.

The announcement came after the South said yesterday it had partially suspended the deal and would resume surveillance operations along the border in response to Pyongyang’s successful launch of a spy satellite the night before.

The launch of the Malligyong-1 satellite, watched by a smiling North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, has been condemned by the United States and its allies as a “brazen violation” of UN sanctions.

Pyongyang has said the satellite is in orbit and that Kim has already reviewed images of US military bases in Guam.

Seoul’s military said the satellite has entered orbit, but warned it was too early to tell if it was working. – AFP, November 23, 2023.