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North Korean military installations, as seen from Odusan Unification Tower in South Korea’s city of Paju on June 4, 2024. North Korean troops can be seen installing a barbed-wire fence. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

On June 4, the South Korean Cabinet passed a motion completely suspending the "Agreement on the Implementation of the Historic Panmunjom Declaration in the Military Domain," a comprehensive military agreement signed in 2018 that had forbidden all hostile behavior between South and North Korea. That came in response to recent provocations by North Korea, including the launches of balloons filled with garbage.

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol approved the motion three hours after it was passed in the Cabinet meeting. The hard-line measures Seoul is taking against North Korea’s launches of waste-filled balloons are expected to further heighten military tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean residents can be seen working in the rice fields. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Also on June 4, North Korean soldiers could be seen working on barbed-wire fences at a military facility visible from Odusan Unification Tower, in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. In the fields, civilians are peacefully planting rice seedlings, in striking contrast with the soldiers’ work.

Below we have collected several photographs of North Korea as seen from Odusan Unification Tower.

Inside Odusan Unification Tower, in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, a wall features a photo of former President Moon Jae-in shaking hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un during a summit in 2018. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Tourists use binoculars to peer into North Korea from Odusan Unification Tower, in Paju, Gyeonggi Province. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

Past a North Korean military facility, the South Korean flag can be seen flying in Daeseong, a South Korean hamlet known as “Freedom Village,” on June 4. (Kim Hye-yun/The Hankyoreh)

By Kim Hye-yun, staff reporter

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