The South Korean military has reportedly decided on a policy to resume military drills, including those involving artillery fire, within the inter-Korean "buffer zone" on land, at sea and in the air. The move comes after Seoul fully suspended the 2018 inter-Korean military deal in response to North Korea's flying of balloons carrying trash across the border.

An unnamed military source told Yonhap News on Tuesday that authorities plan to resume training sessions inside the buffer zones in line with the suspension of the agreement.

The latest decision comes some six months after Seoul suspended a clause in the 2018 deal regarding no-fly zones established around the Military Demarcation Line(MDL), in response to Pyongyang's launch of its first military reconnaissance satellite.

The inter-Korean deal, signed during the Moon Jae-in administration, includes the two sides' agreement to halt all types of military exercises targeting each other near the MDL starting November 1, 2018.

Firearms training and field maneuver exercises had been halted within five kilometers from the MDL on land, in waters between South Korea's Deokjeokdo Island and North Korea's Chodo Island in the Yellow Sea, and between the South's Sokcho and the North's Tongchon County in the East Sea.

The two Koreas had agreed to prohibit tactical air training within no-fly zones over the eastern and western parts of the MDL.