North Korea has announced that it is scrapping a package of military confidence-building measures with South Korea, as tensions mount on the Korean peninsula after Pyongyang’s successful launch of its first military spy satellite.
The inter-Korean Comprehensive Military Agreement (CMA), reached in 2018 by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korea’s then-president Moon Jae-in during a period of intense diplomacy, was designed to reduce military tensions along the historic foes’ border.
But the pact has come under increasing strain as North Korea has made unrelenting progress on its nuclear weapons programme, while South Korea has intensified joint military exercises with the US and Japan.