[Editorial] Keep deterrence

President Lee Jae Myung said Friday that he would restore the Sept. 19, 2018, military deal between South and North Korea proactively and in stages.

In his speech marking the 80th anniversary of the Korean Peninsula's liberation from Japan's 1910-1945 colonial rule, he also said that he would wait patiently for North Korea's response.

His remarks were intended to ease inter-Korean tension and build mutual trust, but it is worrisome that Seoul may be getting ahead of itself when Pyongyang has not changed its hostility toward the South at all.

If South Korea alone abides by the military agreement, its defense readiness could be weaker.

Soon after taking office in June, Lee instructed the military to turn off anti-North Korea propaganda loudspeakers along the inter-Korean border. His administration demanded that activists stop sending leaflets critical of the Pyongyang regime into the North. It is also said to have discontinued radio and television broadcasting to North Korea, which had been transmitted without interruption for decades, to let North Korean residents know of the world outside.

When North Korea was spotted removing a few anti-South Korean loudspeakers along the border, the Lee government announced to the effect that the North began to tear down its loudspeakers in response to the South's dismantlement of anti-North loudspeakers. But Pyongyang said, instead, "We have never removed loudspeakers installed along the border, and are not willing to remove them."

North Korea removed just two of about 40 loudspeakers and reinstalled one of them. It may have repaired or replaced the loudspeakers. However, the South rushed to interpret it as the North's response.

The inter-Korean military deal, which was concluded in the days of the Moon Jae-in administration, designates land and sea buffer zones banning live-fire exercises and maneuvers, along with no-fly zones prohibiting reconnaissance flights.

In a bid to comply with the agreement, South Korean Marine units on western border islands had to move their self-propelled artillery inland for training. Their defensive capability could not help but weaken.

However, North Korea conducted live-fire exercises in the sea buffer zone and even launched ballistic missiles. The North violated the agreement numerous times, but the Moon government practically overlooked the violations. The accord seemed to shackle the South Korean military alone.

In November 2023, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration suspended the no-fly zone in response to North Korea's launch of a spy satellite. Then Pyongyang declared the deal terminated. In the following year, Seoul suspended the entire agreement after the North disturbed radio frequencies and sent balloons carrying trash and waste into the South.

Unilateral restoration of the military accord, which bans training near the Demilitarized Zone, is a matter totally different from the dismantlement of loudspeakers. Military training is essential for maintaining national security.

The Lee government conducted live-fire Marine training with self-propelled artillery in June. Then, it recently announced it would postpone part of its planned joint field maneuvers with US forces. The decision came after Kim Yo-jong, a senior official of North Korea's Workers Party and sister of its leader Kim Jong-un, condemned the drills. Though she said Pyongyang had no interest in Seoul’s decision to postpone the military field exercise, the Lee administration seeks to restore the military deal proactively.

These moves raise concerns that the South may be going back to the days of the Moon administration, when Korea's joint live-fire exercises with the US were suspended for more than four years.

South Korea's appeasement measures are necessary to induce changes in North Korea. But they must be taken cautiously and in step with its responses. Washington is said to consider shifting the role of the US Forces Korea toward the containment of China. The North keeps upgrading even its conventional weaponry through its closer ties with Russia, not to mention its nuclear and missile technologies.

Even though it pursues dialogue with Pyongyang, Seoul must maintain deterrence through military training.