A U.N. agency handling agricultural matters will send a group of experts to North Korea next week to help the country contain foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), the Radio Free Asia (RFA) said in a report Friday.
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the U.N. will dispatch "three to five experts, including a veterinarian," to North Korea to determine what sort of assistance North Koreans will need in light of the FMD outbreak, the RFA reported. Citing an anonymous FAO official, the report said the agency held an emergency meeting immediately after North Korea requested aid earlier this week.
"We're very pleased that North Korea informed us of its FMD outbreak and officially asked for help," the official was quoted as saying.
On Thursday, North Korea confirmed for the first time that it had been hit with the highly contagious livestock disease. According to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), the FMD first broke out in the capital city, Pyongyang, late last year, and has since spread to eight provinces. The disease has claimed the lives of thousands of cows and pigs and has affected more than 10,000 others.
The KCNA report was released hours after the RFA said the North had reported the outbreak to the FAO.
South Korea has also been battling FMD that has spread nationwide in the last three months and caused more than 3 million livestock to be culled. It remains unclear whether the disease spread from the South to the North.
In 2007, North Korea suffered outbreaks of the disease, prompting South Korea to dispatch a team of animal health experts amid a mood of reconciliation.
Citing recent visitors to the impoverished neighbor, South Korean officials said last month that the North is believed to be stepping up its quarantine efforts after outbreaks were reported.
South and North Korea are divided by one of the world's most heavily fortified borders. Most cross-border exchanges have come to a halt over the last three years.
North Korea has banned the inflow of pork and beef from South Korea since late last year for fear that the disease may spread there.