The ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs said on Friday that there is no chance COVID-19 entered North Korea through anti-Pyongyang leaflets sent across the border.

This comes after the North's state media blamed the leaflet activity by defector groups in South Korea for transmitting the virus.

They claimed that the regime's first cases were reported from the border area of Ipho in Kumgang County, Kangwon Province in early April after a soldier and a child came into contact with an "unusual object" on a hill.

Unification ministry deputy spokesperson Cha Deok-cheol refuted the claims, saying the defector groups have said that they sent the leaflets on April 25 and 26, weeks after the North's initial cases were reported.

Citing local health authorities and experts, as well as the World Health Organization(WHO), the deputy spokesperson said it is impossible to contract the virus from objects.