North Korea’s Korean People’s Army (KPA) has denied South Korean claims that a previously “unidentified” flying object which crossed into the South on Tuesday was a series of propaganda balloons, in a report by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Thursday.

A spokesman for the General Staff of the KPA, responding to a question from a KCNA reporter, instead accused the South of firing into the North and said the ROK army had engaged in a “military provocation”.

Around 1600 KST on Tuesday, the South Korean army responded with a warning broadcast and “warning shots” to what it