North Korea claims that South Korean drones dropped leaflets over Pyongyang

On Friday, North Korea accused South Korea of ​​sending drones to drop a "huge amount" anti-North Korean leaflets over the country's capital, Pyongyang, calling it a political and military provocation that could lead to armed conflict.

South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it could not confirm the North's accusations, but in a statement it cited to Pyongyang's practice of sending balloons with garbage bags attached to South Korean airspace.

North Korea's foreign ministry said drones flew over Pyongyang overnight this week and last week and that the incursion warranted retaliation, state news agency KCNA reported.

"ROK (South Korea) should immediately stop such irresponsible and a dangerous provocation that can cause an armed conflict and lead to war between the two sides», – according to the statement of the ministry.

In a statement, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said it "cannot confirm the veracity of North Korea's claims", adding: "Full responsibility for the recent series of events" lies in Pyongyang.

It referred to "vile, low-grade acts that disgrace the international community, using dirty and trash balls and other provocations". New balloons will be sent on Friday, according to the message.

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Since May, North Korea has launched thousands of balloons with garbage into the South's territory, escalating tensions between the two countries.

Pyongyang says this is in response to some activists and North Korean defectors in South Korea flying balloons to the North with aid packages and leaflets critical of leader Kim Jong-un.

KCNA released photos showing shows a blurred triangular object labeled as a 'drone' dropping another object labeled as a 'bundle of postcards'. One of the images also shows a cloud of small objects labeled as “scattered postcards”.

Another photo showed black, yellow and white leaflets comparing the South's economic situation to the North's impoverishment and criticizing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by name.

South Korean news agency Yonhap, citing an official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said it was necessary to find out whether a private group had been sending postcards to the North.

In December, five North Korean drones crossed the border into South Korea, prompting Seoul to fly fighter jets and attack helicopters and try to shoot them down, the first such incursion since 2017.

The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 war ended in an armistice rather than peace treaty, and the North has long called the defectors “human scum.''

There will be no more warnings and the North will take immediate action if the South sends another drone into its territory, North Korea's foreign ministry said. .