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North Korean leader halts military action plans against South Korea

Kim presided over a preliminary Central Military Commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea through a video conference

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un Yury Smituik/TASS

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un

© Yury Smituik/TASS

TASS, June 24. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un made a decision to suspend "military action plans" against South Korea, Yonhap reported citing the Korean Central News Agency.

Kim presided over a preliminary Central Military Commission meeting of the ruling Workers' Party of Korea through a video conference.

"At the preliminary meeting, the WPK Central Military Commission took stock of the prevailing situation and suspended the military action plans against the South brought for the fifth meeting of the Seventh Central Military Commission by the General Staff of the Korean People's Army," the Korean Central News Agency reported.

The meeting discussed agenda items of major military policy to be laid before the fifth meeting of the Seventh WPK Central Military Commission. The participants also studied a report and decisions, which "will be submitted to the fifth meeting, and some documents carrying the state measures for further bolstering the war deterrent of the country," the KCNA said.

On June 22, the KCNA reported that Pyongyang published 12 mln propaganda leaflets to be disseminated in South Korea by more than 3,000 balloons. On June 16, North Korea blew up its joint liaison office with Seoul in Kaesong in response to propaganda leaflets sent by South Korean activists.

Tensions between the two Koreas intensified after Pyongyang announced plans to deploy army units in Kumgangsan and Kaesong, restart all kinds of military drills near the border with the South and reinstate security posts in the most dangerous areas of the demilitarized zone that were previously taken down in accordance with agreements with Seoul.

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