North Korea has filed a strong complaint with the South Korean government for the airborne distribution of anti-Pyongyang flyers along the inter-Korean military demarcation line by the South’s civic and religious groups.

The Ministry of Unification said Friday that the North presented to the South hundreds of flyers during a liaison officers’ meeting on August 10th, and urged Seoul to abide by a 2004 agreement to stop denouncing or slandering each other.

At general-level talks on June 4th, 2004, the two Koreas agreed to stop all propaganda activities along the military demarcation line.

According to the ministry, the flyers denouncing the North’s communist regime and its leader Kim Jong-il and are believed to have been carried to the North by large balloons.

Two South Korean groups claimed responsibility for sending the leaflets to the North.

The ministry said there is no domestic law to penalize the groups but urged them not to further provoke the North as such acts run counter to the spirit of the agreement.

One civic group said that the distribution of the flyers has nothing to do with the South Korean government, vowing to continue to send the leaflets.