Killer flu hits North Korea

NORTH Korea yesterday acknowledged an outbreak of bird flu for the first time, saying hundreds of thousands of chickens were killed to prevent its spread, and that the disease wasn’t passed on to humans.

The outbreaks occurred at a "few chicken farms," and "hundreds of thousands of infected birds" were burned before burial, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency reported.

The bulletin said no farm employees were known to have been infected by the disease which has killed 48 people throughout Southeast Asia.

Earlier this month a South Korea agency reported bird flu in the North, and officials said a South Korean trading company had delayed plans to import 40 tons of poultry from North Korea, but declined to say why.