South Korea's Unification Ministry has rejected a claim by North Korea that the regime's first COVID-19 infections came from the inter-Korean border and seeming to blame a propaganda leaflet sent from the South.
The North's state media claimed Friday that the virus first spread in early April from Ipo-ri on the North Korean side of Gangwon-do Province.
They say a soldier and a young child found a "peculiar object" in the woods, seeming to suggest a propaganda leaflet sent over the border on a balloon by activists.
The Unification Ministry's deputy spokesperson explained later in the day that the leaflets were sent in late April, which would be weeks after the regime found its first infection.
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Over 170 mm of rain falls in parts of Chungcheongnam-do Province overnight
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