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S.Korea to offer swine flu aid to N.Korea |
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News -
Health
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Tuesday, 08 December 2009 23:12 |
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South Korean President Lee Myung-bak ordered his government Tuesday to help North Korea deal with a possible outbreak of A(H1N1)
, known as swine flu, saying the disease could do serious damage throughout the impoverished state, local media reported.
"There are reports of an outbreak of the new flu in North Korea, so find ways to help North Korea after confirming the reports," the president was quoted as telling a Cabinet meeting, Yonhap News Agency said.
North Korea has not yet announced any local case of the H1N1 virus, but Good Friends, a Seoul-based aid group, said Monday that about a dozen people have died from the disease there, according to Yonhap. Schools started winter vacation a month early on Dec. 4 due to the rapid spread of disease, the aid group said.
Relations between the two Koreas quickly deteriorated after Lee, a conservative, was inaugurated early last year with a pledge to condition inter-Korean exchanges on progress in Pyongyang's denuclearization. Lee, however, said any assistance to the North in dealing with the H1N1 virus must be strictly humanitarian and unconditional, his spokesman Park Sun-kyoo said.
Seoul's Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean relations, said it was considering sending a message to North Korea to discuss the aid measures, such as shipments of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu and other medicine.
North Korean media continued their usual reports of the pandemic spreading abroad. During previous pandemics such as an avian flu outbreak in 2004, the isolated country promptly called for international help. - Kuna
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