North Korea’s repeated violations of a landmark inter-Korean military deal in recent weeks have raised the possibility that South Korea could scrap it entirely — if the agreement doesn’t fade into irrelevance on its own as a result of Pyongyang’s apparent indifference.

But doing away with the Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), which the former Moon Jae-in administration and Kim Jong Un regime signed in Sept. 2018 during a spell of rapprochement, also has worrying implications for security on the peninsula, increasing the likelihood that any small skirmish along the border could spiral out of control.[/p