A North Korean defectors' group said Monday it has sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets and medicine by balloons to the North, as they marked the 73rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War.

A placard condemning North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attached to one of the balloons the anti-Pyongyang group sent to North Korea is seen in this June 26 photo provided by Fighters for a Free North Korea. Yonhap

Park Sang-hak, head of the Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), told Yonhap News Agency that the organization sent 20 balloons carrying some 200,000 leaflets, 10,000 face masks, Tylenol pills and booklets from Gimpo, west of Seoul, at 10 p.m. on Sunday.

Sunday marked the 73rd anniversary of the Korean War that broke out on June 25, 1950, when tank-led North Korean troops invaded South Korea. The United States and 20 other allied countries fought on the side of South Korea under the U.N. flag.

According to Park, the giant balloons carried placards denouncing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un that read "My grandfather (Kim Il-sung) attacked the South 73 years ago, when should I?" referring to the founder of the recalcitrant regime.

The FFNK previously sent balloons carrying similar goods across the border last month and in October last year although such acts are banned in South Korea under a law that was legislated during the previous administration to help reduce tensions in the border regions.

In 2020, Seoul's unification ministry revoked the operation permit for the FFNK, citing concerns over the safety of border town residents and tension on the Korean peninsula.

The group filed a complaint protesting the decision, in which the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to review the legality of the revocation in April. (Yonhap)