Sung Il-jong: "September 19 Military Agreement, a Submissive Pact... Fully Conceded to North Korea"

Seong Il-jong, People Power Party Lawmaker, MBC Radio Interview
"North Korea Violated UN Resolution First... Responding Is Appropriate"

Seong Il-jong, a member of the People Power Party, said, "Begging for a humiliating peace could actually cause greater harm to the people."

Seong, the ruling party's secretary of the National Defense Committee, appeared on MBC Radio's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' on the 24th and said, "I think the September 19 military agreement so far is truly a submissive pact. Didn't we concede everything?"

Seong pointed out, "We have a significant advantage in reconnaissance assets such as drones, but we created no-fly zones and lowered ourselves," adding, "The same goes for the GP. North Korea has three times more than us, but we agreed to dismantle them in equal numbers."

Seong emphasized that "the South Korean government has never preemptively provoked North Korea or broken any of the various inter-Korean agreements," and that the partial suspension of the September 19 military agreement was a response to North Korea's continuous violations of the agreement.

He said, "North Korea violated UN resolutions by launching military reconnaissance satellites, and we must respond to that," adding, "Therefore, we suspended the effect of Article 1, Clause 3 of the agreement, but North Korea broke it yesterday morning."

Regarding concerns that North Korea's de facto breach of the agreement in response to South Korea's partial suspension of the September 19 military agreement could increase the risk of accidental military clashes between the two Koreas, he said, "Of course, we must prevent military clashes, and such talks are necessary, and we want that too," adding, "If North Korea had only complied with the treaty we made, why would we have suspended its effect? Naturally, both Koreas should take various measures to prevent military clashes."