North Korea fired at anti-North Korea leaflet balloons, dropping a number of shells in South Korea's Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province on Friday evening.

The South Korean defense ministry said that the North Korean military fired at around 4 p.m. what is presumed to be 14-point-five millimeter anti-aircraft machine guns at the South Korean region where civic groups were sending leaflets towards the North Friday afternoon.

The shells were known to have dropped at the South's military base near the Civilian Control Line and near a community center in Jung-myeon, Gyeonggi Province.

The South Korean military fired back at North Korea some 40 shells from K-6 machine guns.

North Korea then fired back at South Korean guard posts (GP) using rifles. The South also returned fire, but no damage was reported as they were not aimed shots.

Although the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff says the South Korean military has not suffered any damages, concerns are rising over whether the latest military incident would dampen inter-Korean relations that have been showing some signs of improvement following Pyongyang’s high-level visit to Incheon earlier this month.

On October 4, three of the North Korea’s most powerful officials made a surprise visit to the South last week and accepted Seoul’s request for a high-ranking inter-Korean meeting.

Hwang Pyong-so is the Director of the Korean People's Army General Political Bureau, Choe Ryong-hae is a Secretary of the North's ruling Workers' Party and Kim Yang-gon is the head of the ruling Workers' Party's United Front Department.

The three attended the closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games and met top South Korean officials, including Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae and Presidential National Security Adviser Kim Kwan-jin.

On Sunday, North Korea’s state media says that inter-Korean high-level talks are now all but scrapped, criticizing the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets by South Korean activists.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said that the leaflet campaign is an unacceptable political provocation and South Korea’s irresponsible and provocative attitude on the matter drove inter-Korean relations into catastrophe.

The KCNA, however, did not shut the door for dialogue completely, saying that the future of inter-Korean relations totally depends on South Korean authorities.