Tae Young-ho: "The Party Responsible for the September 19 Agreement Breakdown is North Korea... The World Will Sympathize"

In response to North Korea's continued launch of military reconnaissance satellites, the South Korean government on the 22nd decided to "partially suspend" the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the 9·19 Agreement), calling it a "serious provocation against the Republic of Korea." On the morning of the 23rd, North Korea decided to effectively nullify the 9·19 Agreement. Regarding this, Tae Yong-ho, a member of the People Power Party and former North Korean diplomat, stated, "The fact that North Korea is the cause of the termination is something the whole world agrees on."

On the same day, Tae said on SBS's 'Kim Taehyun's Political Show,' "(North Korea's decision to terminate) was expected. Looking at the content of the 9·19 Agreement, it has almost reached a level where it no longer has any effect, and North Korea is not placing much importance on it," he said.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In response to North Korea's military satellite launch on the 21st, the South Korean government decided to suspend the effect of Article 1, Clause 3 (no-fly zone) of the 9·19 Agreement from the afternoon of the previous day, restoring aerial reconnaissance and surveillance activities around the Military Demarcation Line. In response, on the morning of the same day, North Korea issued a statement in the name of the Ministry of Defense, declaring, "From this moment on, the North Korean military will no longer be bound by the September 19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement and will not recognize any agreements with South Korea," effectively moving to nullify the 9·19 Agreement.

Tae said, "Since we announced yesterday the partial suspension of the effect of Article 1, Clause 3, North Korea took a step further, declaring that since the agreement is no longer effective or functional and is not operational, there is no need for them to be bound by it. I think this is the meaning behind their declaration of termination."

Regarding the claim by Hong Hyun-ik, former head of the Korea National Diplomatic Academy, that "our partial suspension gave North Korea a justification for termination," Tae said, "The 9·19 Military Agreement was issued in 2018 as a supplementary agreement to the Panmunjom Declaration and the Pyongyang Declaration, but over the past five years, North Korea has continuously violated and broken it, which is well known worldwide. North Korea is ultimately responsible for this situation, having launched reconnaissance satellites three times, which forced us to take unavoidable measures. I think there is a global consensus on this."

He added, "Therefore, even if North Korea declared termination this morning, the global perspective is that North Korea is the decisive cause of the termination. I believe no one will raise objections to this."