South Korea could consider scrapping a military tension reduction agreement with North Korea altogether if the North keeps undertaking provocations, the leader of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) said Thursday.
Rep. Kim Gi-hyeon made the remark hours after North Korea blasted the South for suspending part of the 2018 deal and said it will not be bound by the agreement, and immediately restore all military measures halted under the agreement.
In response to North Korea's satellite launch using banned ballistic technology, South Korea suspended a clause of the agreement, which calls for setting up no-fly zones along the border. That enabled the South to conduct surveillance flights along the border.
"There are no reasons for us to hold onto that agreement as if it was a sacred object," Kim said during a party leadership meeting. "If one side repeatedly violates it, that agreement is nothing more than a piece of tissue."
"Even when it was reached, critics said the deal was a one-sided, unfavorable agreement for us. Should the North continue its provocations, the PPP and the government could consider scrapping the agreement entirely," he said.
The PPP leader also called for opposition support in passing a resolution condemning the forced repatriation of North Korean escapees after the measure failed to pass through the parliamentary foreign affairs and unification committee on Wednesday.
Co-signed by 10 lawmakers, mostly from the PPP, the resolution calls for China to stop its forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.