In response to North Korea’s drone intrusion late last year, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol began 2023 by ordering officials to review the possibility of suspending a landmark inter-Korean military agreement signed in Sept. 2018.

Yoon stated that suspending the deal should be conditioned on whether the DPRK conducts another “provocation” in ROK territory like the drone intrusion. 

But after an unprecedented year of North Korean missile launches and military activity, and as inter-Korean tensions soar, it appears increasingly likely that Pyongyang could cross Seoul’s red line again soon.

Suspending the deal, formally