North Korea balloons prompted warning shots: Seoul

An unidentified flying object entered the South Korea's airspace across the tense border with North Korea.

Seoul: Flying objects that prompted South Korean forces to fire warning shots this week appeared to be balloons carrying propaganda leaflets from the North, Seoul`s military said Wednesday.

On Tuesday the defence ministry said troops had opened fire when an unidentified flying object entered the country`s airspace across the tense border with North Korea, with a military official saying it appeared to be a drone.

Defence ministry spokesman Moon Sang-Gyun on Wednesday told journalists that detailed examinations pointed to "balloon-like objects", 10 of which were observed flying with the winds in the border area. Some of them travelled into the South`s territory, he said.

Both Koreas -- plus anti-Pyongyang activists based in the South -- send leaflets across the border, tied to gas-filled balloons.

But Moon ruled out the possibility of the balloons coming from the South, saying that both Seoul and the southern-based activists use cylindrical balloons, rather than spherical.

Lee Min-Bok, a North Korean defector-turned-activist, told AFP that cylindrical balloons made of plastic cost much less than round rubber ones.

"If the suspected balloons were spherical, then I suspect they were from North Korea", he said.

Tensions are high in the region over the nuclear-armed North`s weapons ambitions.

South Korea has repeatedly accused the North of flying suspected spy drones across the tense border.