Yoon threatens to suspend 2018 military pact with North

President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at a meeting at the Blue House state guesthouse in central Seoul Wednesday. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

President Yoon Suk Yeol warned that he would suspend a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement if North Korea intrudes into South Korea's territory.

He also instructed Defense Minister Lee Jong-sup to start up a drone unit capable of surveillance, reconnaissance and electronic warfare, according to the presidential press secretary Wednesday.

The orders came in a meeting Wednesday and after five North Korean drones infiltrated the South's airspace last week, the first such incursion in five years.

Yoon instructed the presidential National Security Office (NSO) to "consider suspending the Sept. 19 military agreement in the event North Korea carries out another such provocation violating our territory," said Kim Eun-hye, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, in a briefing Wednesday. Yoon didn't specify how long any suspension would be.

That military agreement was signed by the Koreas' defense ministers on Sept. 19, 2018, during President Moon Jae-in's third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang. Aimed at reducing inter-Korean border tensions, the agreement called for the dismantling of guard posts in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), a no-fly zone over parts of the military demarcation line (MDL) as well as a gradual disarmament of the Joint Security Area (JSA).

On Dec. 26, South Korea's military discovered that five North Korean unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) crossed the MDL, with one even flying over northern Seoul skies. The military failed to shoot the UAVs down even after firing over 100 shots.

In the meeting Wednesday, Yoon was given a briefing on South Korean drone response capabilities from the NSO, Defense Ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Agency for Defense Development (ADD).

He also called for mass production of small, hard-to-detect drones and to accelerate the development of stealth drones within the year. Yoon also ordered the defense minister to quickly develop a "drone killer" system to take down UAVs.

The president said the military should prepare an "overwhelming response capability that goes proportionately beyond North Korea's provocations," according to Kim, and stressed the importance of a defensive posture to protect the public.

In October, Yoon said that Pyongyang violated an inter-Korean military agreement by firing artillery shots into buffer zones.

The Defense Ministry said that North Korea “explicitly violated” the inter-Korean military agreement 17 times since the launch of the Yoon government last May, and 15 times since October

In response to North Korea's drone intrusion, South Korea's Defense Ministry announced later Wednesday that it plans to establish a drone command at an early date to strengthen surveillance, identification, and strike systems and build an air-defense network for UAVs.

The ministry said this was a follow-up to Yoon's instructions to create a drone unit.

It is expected that the drone command will have joint participation of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

The White House stressed Tuesday that the United States remains fully committed to defending South Korea against any hostile action, including a nuclear attack by North Korea, clarifying there is no difference in the two allies' approach to Pyongyang.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a press conference that the United States is "fully committed" to its alliance with South Korea, "providing extended deterrence through the full range of U.S. defense capabilities."

Those remarks came after Yoon and U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to contradict each other on whether the two countries were preparing for joint exercises involving U.S. nuclear forces.

"We're not discussing joint nuclear exercises," said Jean-Pierre, since South Korea "is a non-nuclear weapons state."

In an interview Monday, Yoon said Seoul was in talks with Washington over joint planning and joint exercises with U.S. nuclear forces to respond to North Korea's nuclear threat.

When asked by a reporter if he was currently discussing "joint nuclear exercises" with South Korea on Monday, Biden appeared to contradict Yoon's remarks and replied, "No."

During Yoon and Biden's talks in Cambodia in November, the two leaders "tasked their teams to plan for an effective, a coordinated response to a range of scenarios, including nuclear use by North Korea," said Jean-Pierre, and "that is what the teams are working on and what President Yoon was clearly referencing when he made his comments yesterday."

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]