A civic group comprised of North Korean defectors on Friday said it sent anti-Pyongyang leaflets via balloons across the inter-Korean border earlier this week, amid escalating military tensions in the Korean Peninsula.

The Fighters for Free North Korea said it sent some 300,000 leaflets from Gimpo, just west of Seoul, on Thursday, criticizing the North's test-firing of the Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile and the launch of short-rage Scuds. It said 10 members of the U.S.-based civic group Human Rights Foundation also took part in the launch.

Along with the leaflets, the civic group said it has also sent 2,000 one-dollar bills, as well as 1,000 USBs and 500 booklets containing criticism of Kim Jong-un's regime.

The civic group regularly launches big balloons carrying such anti-Pyongyang leaflets in a campaign to spread dissenting messages in the reclusive country.

In recent weeks, the North has carried out a series of missile launches in response to South Korea and the United States' decision to deploy a Terminal High altitude Area Defense battery in the Northeast Asian nation to cope with the ever-growing nuclear and missile threats from Pyongyang. (Yonhap)