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South Korea to assist North Korea with FMD outbreak
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)--South Korea will help North Korea contain an outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease, and eventually resume aid halted in protest at the North's missile test launches last year, South Korean officials said March 15. The outbreak occurred in January at a farm in the capital, Pyongyang, sickening 431 cows, according to a North Korean government report dated March 7 and posted on the Web site of the Paris-based World Organization for Animal Health, or OIE. The North also gave information on the situation to the South earlier during the week of March 12. Since the outbreak, quarantine officials have killed 466 cows, including infected ones, as well as 2,630 pigs to prevent the spread of the disease, the North's Agricultural Ministry told the OIE. Some 100,000 animals within a 70-kilometer (44-mile) radius of the outbreak site were being vaccinated, the South's Unification Ministry said. "It is right for us to handle (the delivery of aid) quickly as there are concerns that the disease could spread to our region," South Korea's Unification Minister Lee Jae-joung told reporters. Lee said the North has called for the provision of antibodies and other equipment such as test kits. The last outbreak of FMD in North Korea occurred in 1960, the North's ministry has said. The disease is not known to be a threat to humans, but is highly contagious among other mammals. It affects cows, sheep, goats and other cloven-footed animals, causing blisters on the mouth and feet. Lee also said South Korea will resume aid to the North "at an appropriate time" after the communist country suffered massive flood damage last year. Seoul suspended the aid in protest at the North's missile tests in July. North Korea has suffered from food shortages since the mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy and led to a famine estimated to have killed some 2 million people. 5 Star OK 3/26/07 13 B Date: 3/22/07
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