SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – South Korea summoned Russia's ambassador Friday to protest the country's new defense deal with North Korea, as border tensions flared over vague threats and apparently accidental attacks by North Korean troops. Increasing with infiltration.
Earlier on Friday, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a vague threat of retaliation after South Korean activists released balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets across the border and the South Korean military said That he fired warning shots yesterday at North Korean troops who briefly crossed the rivals' land border for the third time this month.
This comes two days after Moscow and Pyongyang reached an agreement. Commitment to mutual defense cooperation If either is attacked, and a day later Seoul responded by saying. Consider supplying arms to Ukraine. To counter the Russian invasion.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun summoned Russian Ambassador Georgy Zinoviev to protest the accord between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un and demanded Moscow immediately end its alleged military cooperation with Pyongyang. stop as
South Korean diplomat Kim asserted that any cooperation that directly or indirectly helps the North increase its military capabilities would violate UN Security Council resolutions and South Korea's poses a threat to security, and has warned of consequences for Seoul's relationship with Moscow.
Zinoviev replied that he would inform his superiors in Moscow of Seoul's concerns, the ministry said.
Leafleting campaigns by South Korean civic activists have signaled a resurgence in recent weeks. Cold War-style psychological warfare Along the inter-Korean border.
South Korean civic activists, led by North Korean defector Park Sang-hak, said it sent 20 balloons containing 300,000 propaganda leaflets, 5,000 USB sticks with South Korean pop songs and TV dramas, and 3,000 U.S. The dollar bills were sent from a border town in South Korea. Pajo on Thursday night.
Analysts say Pyongyang resents such material and fears it could demoralize frontline soldiers and residents and ultimately weaken Kim Jong-un's grip on power.
In a statement carried by North Korea's state-run Korean Central News Agency, Kim Yo Jong, one of his brother's top foreign policy officials, called the activists a “defector scheme” and released what There was a threat of retaliation.
“When you do something you were clearly warned not to do, it's natural to find yourself dealing with something you didn't need to,” He said without saying what the North would do.
After previous leaf-leaving by South Korean workers, North Korea released more than 1,000 balloons that dropped tons of trash, shattered roof tiles and windows, and damaged other property in South Korea. Kim Yo Jong previously hinted that the balloons could become the North's standard response to the leafleting, saying the North would respond by “scattering dozens of times more rubbish than what was scattered on us”.
In response, South Korea started again. Anti-North Korean propaganda broadcasts Military loudspeakers were installed along the border for the first time in years, prompting Kim Yo-jong to warn in another state media statement that Seoul was “creating a prelude to a very dangerous situation.”
Tensions between the Koreas are at their highest level in years as Kim Jong-un ramps up his nuclear weapons and missile development and aligns himself with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a US-led standoff against the West. Tried to strengthen.
South Korea, a growing arms exporter with a well-equipped U.S.-backed military, says it is considering increasing support for Ukraine in response. Seoul has already provided humanitarian aid and other support while joining US-led economic sanctions against Moscow. But it has not provided weapons directly, citing a long-standing policy of not supplying arms to countries in conflict.
Putin told reporters in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi on Thursday that supplying Ukraine with weapons would be a “huge mistake,” and said that if South Korea is not planning aggression against Pyongyang, he “shouldn't know about the deal.” Don't worry.”
South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Minister Cho Tae-yul held separate phone calls with US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa on Friday to discuss the new agreement. Diplomats agreed that the accord poses a serious threat to peace and stability in the region and strengthen trilateral coordination to address challenges posed by the alignment between Moscow and Pyongyang, Chu's ministry said in a statement. Expressed determination to make.
North Korea is highly sensitive to criticism of Kim's authoritarian rule and attempts to reach its people through foreign news and other media.
In 2015, when South Korea resumed broadcasting through loudspeakers for the first time in 11 years, North Korea fired cross-border artillery fire, prompting South Korea to fire back, according to South Korean officials. was forced No casualties were reported.
South Korea's military said there were signs North Korea was installing speakers on the border, although they were not yet operational.
In the latest cross-border incident, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said several North Korean soldiers engaged in unspecified construction work crossed the military demarcation line that divides the two countries around 11 a.m. Thursday.
The South Korean military broadcast a warning and fired warning shots, after which the North Korean troops retreated. The joint chiefs did not immediately release further details, including why it was releasing the information a day late.
South Korea's military says the recent border incursion was not deliberate, as North Korean troops did not return fire and retreated after warning shots.
The army of the South has observed. It is deploying a large number of troops in the northern front areas. Building suspected anti-tank barriers, fortifying roads and fortifying their sides of the border ostensibly to lay mines. Seoul believes these efforts are likely aimed at preventing North Korean civilians and soldiers from escaping south.