North scraps military pact as South accuses Russia of satellite help

A reconnaissance aircraft lands at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, after completing a flight mission on Thursday. [YONHAP]

South Korea’s intelligence agency told members of the National Assembly that Russian technological assistance enabled the North’s successful launch of a spy satellite earlier this week, according to a conservative People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker on Thursday.

According to PPP Rep. Yoo Sang-bum, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) told the parliamentary Intelligence Committee during a closed-door meeting the same day that “Russian help was behind the success” of the North’s satellite launch, which took place late Tuesday night.

The NIS also told lawmakers that it believes the North Korean satellite successfully entered into a regular orbit, according to Yoo.

The PPP lawmaker cited NIS intelligence that the North shared blueprints and data from its failed satellite launch attempts in May and August with Russia following North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September, where the latter expressed his support for Pyongyang’s space program.

The NIS also informed lawmakers that the North is in the early stages of developing a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and that there are no recent signs that the North will conduct a seventh nuclear weapons test soon.

But the spy agency also told lawmakers that the North could launch more satellites next year, according to Yoo.

After the North’s satellite launch, the South Korean government announced that it would resume surveillance and reconnaissance activities along the military demarcation line (MDL), which had been restricted under a 2018 inter-Korean military agreement intended to reduce the risk of accidental clashes along the border.

In response, the North’s defense ministry declared via state media on Thursday that it would immediately resume all activities it had suspended under the pact and deploy “more powerful armed forces” and “new-type military hardware” along the MDL.

In an English-language report released by Pyongyang’s state-controlled Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the North’s defense ministry vowed it would “never be bound” by the pact in the future and warned the South would “pay dearly” for abrogating parts of the agreement.

The North’s defense ministry also called the satellite launch a “legitimate” act of self-defense and said the South would be “wholly accountable” if an inter-Korean clash occurred.

The ministry’s statement came hours after the North fired an unspecified ballistic missile toward the East Sea on Wednesday night, which the South Korean military concluded was a failure.

The North also said Thursday that the satellite took pictures of U.S. military facilities in Guam on Wednesday morning and that the satellite will begin reconnaissance activities on Dec. 1 after undergoing “fine-tuning.”

Speaking before the National Assembly on Thursday, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik said that Seoul’s partial suspension of the inter-Korean military agreement is “a proportionate response” and “a minimal defensive measure” against Pyongyang.

The defense minister characterized Tuesday’s satellite launch as “a clear violation of the U.N. Security Council resolutions and a serious provocation against the international community” in his remarks to lawmakers.

Shin previously criticized the inter-Korean military agreement during his confirmation hearing in September, arguing that it weakened the South Korean military’s defensive posture.

At a press briefing held Thursday, Defense Ministry spokesman Jeon Ha-kyou denounced the North for “distorting the facts and shifting the blame” for escalating tensions onto South Korea, adding that the South Korean military “will closely monitor North Korea’s actions and come up with response measures to protect our people.”

The Unification Ministry also blasted the North Korean defense ministry’s statement as a “far-fetched” claim while calling South Korea’s partial suspension of the 2018 agreement a “just self-defense measure” amid the North’s “constant violations and nuclear and missile threats and provocations” against the South.

BY LEE HO-JEONG, MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]