North Korea Requests Bird Flu Help

North Korea has asked the South Korean government on April 8 to provide necessary utilities and medicine related to the recent outbreak of bird flu. This is the response to the South Korean government’s proposal of March 29.

Through a phone call to the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, the North Korean National Veterinary Quarantine Committee revealed that “there has been an outbreak of bird flu on February 25 and the 210,000 chickens infected or possibly infected have all been buried.”

The South Korean government is expecting the North’s request to be an opportunity to restart North-South communications that had stopped since last year.

Prior to this, Bernard Vallat, Director General of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE), revealed on April 8 that North Korea has also officially admitted the outbreak of bird flu to OIE and requested help.