South Korea proposes to DPRK for FMD vaccine aid

South Korea proposed Monday to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to offer vaccines and disinfection equipment against foot-and-mouth disease which has swept over the northern neighbor, local media reported. An unidentified official at Seoul's Unification Ministry told reporters that the South Korean government offered to hold working- level talks with the DPRK on Monday morning to discuss how to help prevent further spread of the foot-and-mouth disease in the North. No detailed schedule for the dialogue was predetermined yet, the official said, noting that details will be decided at the talks though major support items were expected to be vaccines and disinfection equipment. If the DPRK accepts South Korea's proposal, officials in charge of livestock quarantine affairs from both sides will have a meeting later. Seoul's proposal for the working-level contact was made in the name of head of the South Korean Agriculture Ministry' s livestock quarantine affairs. The DPRK's official news agency KCNA reported last Friday that a foot-and-mouth disease broke out on livestock farms in Pyongyang on Jan. 8. The disease has spread to 17 units in Pyongyang and the North Hwanghae Province. The type of foot-and-mouth disease has infected around 3,200 pigs, among which 360 died and 2,900 were destroyed. The outbreak of such disease in the DPRK was the first since April 2011. The DPRK has established a National Emergency Epidemic Prevention Committee to quarantine and disinfect the area of disease. Seoul's Agriculture Ministry said last Friday that it was informed of the DPRK's foot-and-mouth disease outbreak by the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE).