North Korea says talks with South 'all but scrapped'

SEOUL: North Korea's state media said on 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 activists in the South.