North Korea said on Friday that its outbreak of COVID-19 started after two people came into contact with "unusual things" near the border with South Korea, CNN reports.

The country's state media released a report conducted by North Korea's Emergency Epidemic Prevention Headquarters which found that the first positive cases identified in the country occurred after an 18-year-old soldier and a 5-year-old child had contact with "unusual items" last April near the border in the Ipho-ri area of Kumgang County.

The report does not describe the "unusual items," only stating the need "to vigilantly deal with unusual items coming by wind and other climate phenomena and balloons."

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that although people can be infected by coming into contact with an object that has been contaminated, there is a low risk of being infected with COVID-19 through contact with an object or surface.

The South Korean government previously denied that balloons carrying leaflets and medical supplies, which were sent in April and June of this year, were linked to the outbreak.

Cheong Seong-chang, the director of the Center for North Korean Studies at South Korea's Sejong Institute think tank, told The Wall Street Journal that "by shifting the blame on South Korea, North Korea will likely respond strongly to balloons sent by defectors' groups, raising tensions on the Korean Peninsula."

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