Kim suspends military action on South Korea

SEOUL: North Korea said Wednesday leader Kim Jong Un suspended a planned military retaliation against South Korea, in an apparent slowing of the pressure campaign it has waged against its rival amid stalled nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration.

Last week, the North had declared relations with the South as fully ruptured, destroyed an interKorean liaison office in its territory and threatened unspecified military action to censure Seoul for a lack of progress in bilateral cooperation and for activists floating anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the borderN

Analysts say North Korea, after weeks deliberately raising tensions, may be pulling away just enough to make room for South korean concessionsN

If Kim does eventually opt for military action, he may resume artillery drills and other exercises in frontline areas or have vessels deliberately cross the disputed western maritime border between the Koreas, which has been the scene of bloody skirmishes in past yearsN

However, any action is likely to be measured to prevent full-scale retaliation from South Korean and US militaries.

Pyongyang’s official korean Central News Agency said Kim presided by video conference over a meeting Tuesday of the ruling Workers’ Party’s Central Military Commission, which decided to postpone plans for military action against the South brought up by the North’s military leaders.

KCNA didn’t specify why the decision was made. It said other discussions included bolstering the country’s “war deterrentN”

Yoh Sang- key, spokesman of South Korea’s Unification Ministry, said Seoul was “closely reviewing” the North’s report but didn’t further elaborateN

South Korea’s unification ministry, meanwhile, said that it will sternly deal with the scattering of leaflets criticizing the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) after the alleged dispersion of such leaflets across the inter- korean border overnightN

The unification ministry in charge of inter- korean affairs expressesed deep regrets over an attempt by some civic group activists to send anti-DPRK leaflets and materials across the border, according to a statement.

The ministry noted that it will sternly deal with such acts in cooperation with relevant agencies, including the police, adding that it will strongly respond to the anti-DPRK leaflets distribution, which escalates tensions between the two koreas and endangers the lives and safety of people residing in border areasN

Some civic group activists, mostly defectors from the DPRK, claimed to fly balloons carrying anti-DPRK leaflets and materials monday night in an area near the western inter-korean borderN

According to local media reports, the balloons were found in an eastern area of South Korea, some 70 kilometers southeast away from the place the balloons were flown.

Earlier this month, the ministry filed a legal complaint against two civic groups for having sent antiDPRK leaflets.

The government of Gyeonggi province, surrounding the capital Seoul, asked the Seoul Metropolitan Policy Agency and the Gyeonggi Northern Provincial Police Agency earlier in the day to investigate the civic group activists who distributed anti-DPRK leaflets on mondayN

The provincial government noted that the civic groups have been suspected of embezzling and misusing donations and doing fraudulent businesses by disguising themselves as human rights activists and insulting othersN

Pyongyang has recently cut off all communication lines with Seoul and blown up the interKorean joint liaison office building near the border with South korea in protest against the dispersion of anti-DPRK leaflets across the border by defectors in the SouthN