South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said on Wednesday he felt an apology was due to North Korea over his predecessor’s alleged order to send drones and propaganda leaflets across the border.

“I feel I should apologise, but I hesitate to say it out loud,” he said at a news conference marking a year after former president Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country briefly into chaos by declaring martial law.

“I worry that if I do, it could be used as fodder for ideological battles or accusations of being pro-North [Korea],” he added.

Prosecutors have accused Yoon of instructing Seoul’s military to fly drones over Pyongyang and distribute anti-North leaflets in an attempt to provoke a response.

They have alleged that he planned to use an attack by the North to strengthen his case for declaring martial law under the guise of a national emergency.

Prosecutors indicted Yoon last month on charges of aiding the enemy.

They said Yoon and others “conspired to create conditions that would allow the declaration of emergency martial law, thereby increasing the risk of inter-Korean armed confrontation and harming public military interests”.

North Korea said last year it had “proved” that the South flew drones to drop propaganda leaflets over its capital, an act that Seoul’s military has not confirmed.

Lee has taken several steps to ease tensions since taking office in June, including removing propaganda loudspeakers along the border.

And on Tuesday, South Korea’s parliament passed a law banning unmanned balloons from no-fly zones — long used by activists to send propaganda leaflets into the North.

In 2018, during a period of improved inter-Korean relations, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed to “completely cease all hostile acts”, including leaflet drops.

The South Korean parliament previously passed a law in 2020 criminalising sending leaflets to the North.

But activists did not stop and the law was struck down by the Constitutional Court in 2023 as an undue limitation on free speech.