North Korea Korea’s state media said Saturday high-level talks with the South were now all but scrapped due to the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets from the South a day earlier.

North Korea Korea's state media said Saturday high-level talks with the South were now all but scrapped due to the launch of anti-Pyongyang propaganda leaflets from the South a day earlier.

The two Koreas traded heavy machine-gun fire across their border Friday, triggered by the North Korean military trying to shoot down balloons carrying the leaflets, launched by South Koreans.

No casualties were reported on the South's side, and none are believed to have taken place in the North.

"Because of the irresponsible and provocative acts by the puppet regime... the planned high-level meeting is all but scrapped," Pyongyang's official Internet news provider Uriminzokkiri said.
However it did not shut the door completely.

"It is totally up to the South Korean puppets' attitude what would happen to the North-South Korean relations in the future," it added.

A week earlier, the two Koreas had agreed to work on resuming a formal high-level dialogue that has effectively been suspended for seven months.

The agreement came during a surprise visit to South Korea by three top-ranking North Korean officials, two of them close aides to paramount leader Kim Jong-Un, ostensibly to encourage North Korean athletes and attend the closing ceremony of the Incheon Asian Games.

The visit raised hopes of a thaw in strained inter-Korean relations.