Kim Yo Jong, the powerful sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, accused South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol of generating tensions on the Korean peninsula to divert attention from problems at home, state media said on Monday.

Tensions between the two Koreas are running high after Pyongyang signed a mutual defense pact with Russia and sent trash-filled balloons over to South Korea in response to South Korean activists' balloon launches with anti-North Korea leaflets, Reuters reported.

"The Yoon and his group, plunged into the worst ruling crisis, are attempting an 'emergency escape' through the platform of ever-escalating tensions," Kim Yo Jong said, according to KCNA.

She cited an online petition calling for Yoon to be impeached, with more than 1 million signatures.

Kim Yo Jong also called South's recent firing drills near the border an "inexcusable and explicit provocation".