DPRK to redeploy troops to demilitarized zone

The army of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea announced on Wednesday that it would redeploy soldiers to the previously-demilitarized Kaesong Industrial Zone and the Mount Kumgang areas soon.

The army was making a clearer stand on more detailed military action plans outlined on Tuesday so as to provide military guarantee for the measures taken by the party and the government, an unnamed spokesman for General Staff of the Korean People’s Army was quoted by the Korean Central News Agency as saying in a statement.

Under the detailed military action plans, to be approved by the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party of Korea, units of the regiment level and necessary firepower sub-units will be deployed in the Mount Kumgang tourist area and the Kaesong Industrial Zone, the two most important symbols of inter-Korean cooperation.

According to the military spokesman, civil police posts that had been withdrawn from the demilitarized zone under the 2018 inter-Korea agreement in the military field, will be set up again to strengthen the guard over the front line.

Moreover, the artillery units deployed on the whole front line will reinforce those on combat duty and will resume all kinds of regular military exercises in the areas close to the boundary.

The South Korean Ministry of National Defense expressed deep concern.

The ministry noted that the military action plans squarely run counter to the inter-Korean agreements and these moves will thwart two decades of joint efforts and outcomes by South Korea and the DPRK to develop inter-Korean relations and keep peace on the Peninsula.

The ministry said the South Korean military has been maintaining a firm defense posture while closely monitoring the moves of the DPRK, adding that it will continue efforts to ensure that military tensions would not be escalated through stable management of situations.

DPRK also flatly rejected a plea from South Korea to send special envoys to Pyongyang for talks to ease the current tensions on the peninsula, KCNA reported. The South Korean authorities “staged the petty farce of asking us to accept special envoys on June 15,” but the “tactless and sinister proposal” was flatly rejected by the top DPRK leader Kim Yo Jong, said the KCNA.