This photo, captured from the website of North Korea's Korean Central News Agency on June 20, 2020, shows printed pictures of South Korean President Moon Jae-in with cigarette butts in a plastic bag, after the North has said it will send anti-Seoul propaganda leaflets from the North into the South. Yonhap

South Korea urged North Korea on Saturday to "immediately" withdraw its plan to send anti-Seoul leaflets across the border into the South, voicing regret over its decision to do so.

The unification ministry handling inter-Korean affairs made the request after the North's state media said earlier in the day it was printing anti-Seoul propaganda materials in large numbers and preparing to send them across the border to the South.

The North's Korean Central News Agency website showed pictures of North Korean workers sorting printed propaganda flyers in piles. One of them showed pictures of President Moon Jae-in with dirty cigarette butts in a plastic bag.

"It is very regrettable that North Korea unveiled via a media outlet its plan to send massive anti-South Korea leaflets, and we demand its immediate halt," the ministry said in a statement.

"Such acts by North Korea are a clear violation of the inter-Korean agreement, a step that does not resolve wrong practices between the two Koreas but rather exacerbates them," it said, stressing that it does no good for inter-Korean relations or the peace process on the Korean Peninsula.