Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Kim Tae-hyo said on Monday that the South Korean military plans to restore guard posts along the inter-Korean border after North Korea began doing so on Monday.

Appearing on a KBS program, Kim said that South Korea simply cannot do nothing when the North is posing an armed threat in rebuilding guard posts within the Demilitarized Zone(DMZ), bringing in heavy firepower and conducting nighttime guard duty as seen in surveillance photos released by Seoul.

Regarding the South Korean military’s vow to take “corresponding measures” in response to the North's latest move, Kim said Seoul plans to proceed immediately but calmly as Pyongyang is deliberately violating the entire agreement.

The security adviser also said that because North Korea has continuously breached the 2018 inter-Korean military agreement over the last five years, there is no need to hold an additional Cabinet meeting to suspend the effectiveness of other provisions within the deal.

The North’s latest movement coincides with its declaration that it would reinstate all military activities halted under the 2018 deal in response to the South's partial suspension of the accord following the regime's military reconnaissance satellite launch last Tuesday.

Under the September 2018 agreement, the two sides each blew up ten guard posts in the DMZ in a bid to diffuse cross-border tensions and to prevent accidental clashes while leaving an eleventh vacant.

[Photo : YONHAP News]