North Korea warns South Korea that forces are prepared to launch an attack in the event that more drones are seen.

North Korea's southern neighbor, South Korea, flew drones above Pyongyang and dropped leaflets, prompting North Korea to declare on Sunday that army forces are ready to strike.

According to the Associated Press, South Korea has promised to punish North Korea if its citizens are threatened, but it has declined to clarify whether it has sent drones into that country.

North Korea claims that South Korea dropped propaganda pamphlets over Pyongyang, the country's capital, and brought drones into its territory three times. North Korean officials threatened to use force if it occurred again.

State media reported Sunday that the North’s Defense Ministry said its military issued a preliminary operation order to artillery and other units near the border of South Korea to be prepared to "open fire."

A spokesperson for the ministry who remained unidentified said North Korea’s military ordered units to fully prepare for situations in which they may need to launch immediate strikes on unspecified enemy targets, if South Korea sends drones across the border again, according to the statement.

The spokesperson also said "grave tough-and-go military tensions are prevailing on the Korean Peninsula" due to the south’s drone flights.

In another statement on Sunday, the spokesperson said South Korea "might turn into piles of ashes" after North Korea’s powerful attack.

North Korea is no stranger to issuing such fiery and blistering rhetoric when tensions between it and South Korea and the U.S. become elevated.

Relations between North and South Korea have been tense since a U.S.-led diplomacy to end North Korea’s nuclear program disintegrated in 2019.

Since then, North Korea has pushed to expand its nuclear arsenal and has repeatedly threatened to attack South Korea and the U.S. with nuclear weapons.

Experts, though, say it is unlikely North Korea will launch a full-blown attack because the U.S. and South Korean forces outpace the north’s military.

Last Week, North Korea said it would permanently block its border with South Korea and build front-line defense structures to cope with "confrontational hysteria" by South Korean and U.S. forces.

Last month, North Korea launched more than 160 balloons carrying trash across the southern border.

Inside the balloons were paper, plastic bottles and other household garbage, which were found in parts of Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital of Seoul.

Earlier in September, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said it detected about 420 balloons that the north allegedly launched into South Korea.

The trash bundle is the latest tit-for-tat between the two Koreas, which have been engaging in Cold War-style tactics since earlier this year, with the North having flown thousands of balloons toward the South, filled with wastepaper, cloth scraps, cigarette butts and even manure. 

According to North Korea, the balloons are a form of reprisal against South Korean citizen activists who cross the border with anti-North Korean propaganda flyers.

In July, debris from at least one North Korean balloon landed on the South Korean presidential palace, sparking worries about the safety of important South Korean infrastructure. Authorities declared that there were no hazardous items in the balloon and that nobody was injured.

Front-line loudspeakers in South Korea have been used in retaliation to blast K-pop music and propaganda messages toward the North.

Fox News Digital’s Bradford Betz and The Associated Press contributed to this report.