North Korea To Stop Flying Trash Balloons As South Korea Vows 'Unbearable' Punishment; Peace Treaty Suspended

Amid the rising tensions in the Korean Peninsula, North Korea on Sunday has stated that it will stop sending trash balloons over South Korea. As reporters by state-media KCNA, Pyongyang's Defence Minister Kim Kang II has stated that DPRK will be "temporarily halting the practice".

The defence minister, who said that the act was in response to Seoul's practices of sending anti-North Korea leaflets over the border, also added: “We’ve let the South Koreans experience enough of how dirty it feels and how much joint effort it takes to clean up spread-out rubbish."

Meanwhile, South Korea has vowed strict punished for the North for its "unbearable action" of sending hundreds of trash balloons. South Korea’s national security director Chang Ho-jin stated on Sunday that the Seoul government has decided to take “unbearable” measures.  

On Monday, South Korea's national security council confirmed that it has decided to suspend the 2018 inter-Korean agreement with North Korea until "mutual trust is restored". With this suspension, the South Korea will be allowed to resume military drills near the border with North Korea and take effective and immedaite responses to any provocations made by Pyongyang.

As per officials from the president's office, Seoul will not rule out resuming its loudspeaker broadcasts at the border.

The front-line loudspeaker broadcasts into North Korea would include criticism of the human rights situation in the state, world news and lastly, K-Pop songs (which are till date illegal over in the North).

North Korea has flown over 150 balloons carrying 15 tonnes of trash towards South Korea. The trash balloons, cited as "sincere presents" by Kim Yo Jong, have increased the tensions between the two neighbours.

Since the start of this year, tensions between North and South Korea escalated after the North began carrying out drills near remote South Korean provinces and islands.

The two Koreas - which technically are still at war - have been cut off from each after an armistice in 1953 brought a pause to the Korean War.

The trash, as examined by South Korean military, had "no substances harmful to safety". However, at some instances, the South Korean Joint Chief of Staffs stated that used toilet paper were found in some balloons. Most of the times, the trash balloons have carried over paper trash and cigarette butts.

South Korea is now working with local police, government, safety ministry and the United Nations command to safely retrieve the trash balloons and its debris across Seoul and as far as the Gyeongsang province.

As tensions escalate, South Korea has vowed to carry out retaliatory measures in the coming few days.