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North Korea
AsiaEast Asia

North Korea suspends plans for military action against South

  • Kim Jong-un presided over a meeting at which a decision was made to postpone plans for military retaliatory action against South Korea
  • This comes after weeks of tensions, with observers saying it is possible North Korea is pulling away just enough to make room for South Korean concessions

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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a meeting of the Seventh Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea in North Korea. Kim has suspended his military's plans to take unspecified retaliatory action against South Korea. Photo: AP
Associated Press
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un suspended his military’s plans to take unspecified retaliatory action against South Korea, state media said on Wednesday, possibly slowing a pressure campaign against its rival amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.
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Declaring relations as fully ruptured, the North last week blew up an inter-Korean liaison office in its territory and threatened unspecified military action against the South, censuring Seoul for a lack of progress in bilateral cooperation and failing to stop activists from floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Kim on Tuesday presided over a preliminary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, which decided to postpone plans for military action against the South brought up by the North’s military leaders.

The KCNA did not specify why the decision was made. The agency also said the meeting’s discussions included bolstering the country’s “war deterrent”.

South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take positions during an annual exercise in Paju, near the border with North Korea, on June 23. Photo: AP
South Korean army K-9 self-propelled howitzers take positions during an annual exercise in Paju, near the border with North Korea, on June 23. Photo: AP
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After spending weeks deliberately raising tensions, observers say it is possible that the North is pulling away just enough to make room for South Korean concessions.

The North would be seeking something major from the South, possibly a commitment to resume operations at a closed joint factory park in Kaesong, which was where the liaison office was located, or restart South Korean tours to the North’s Diamond Mountain resort. But it would be impossible for Seoul to take such steps without rattling international sanctions against the North over its nuclear weapons programme.

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