PYONGYANG, Sept. 23 -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday condemned a South Korean civic group for spreading anti-DPRK leaflets, the official news agency KCNA reported.

"The Alliance for the Movement of Free North," an organization of "defectors" from the DPRK, distributed leaflets of anti-DPRK content Sunday despite Pyongyang's objection and its calling for halting such actions, the state media said.

The leaflet distribution was a challenge to improving north-south relations and the resumption of the dialogue, a spokesman for the Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea was cited by the KCNA as saying.

The spokesman said inter-Korean relations will never improve if Seoul persistently patronizes such leaflets distributions.

The leaflets spreading took place close to Incheon, the host city for the ongoing 17th Asian Games, the KCNA noted, accusing South Korea of chilling the atmosphere of national reconciliation and reunification that prevails in the games.

On Sept. 13, a spokesperson for the DPRK delegation to the high-level north-south contact urged South Korea to stop spreading propaganda leaflets via balloons over the territory of the DPRK.

However, Seoul denied the DPRK's allegation, saying South Korea is abiding by inter-Korean agreements and it was groundless to claim the scattering of leaflets to be connected with the authorities.