North Korea 'hit by foot-and-mouth outbreak'
North Korea has been hit by foot-and-mouth disease, reports from Seoul say.
A spokesperson for South Korea's Unification Ministry said that recent visitors had reported the outbreak of the communicable cattle disease.
But Lee Jong-hu said North Korea had not confirmed the outbreak.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said that Pyongyang had deployed military personnel to disinfect farms since the outbreak of the disease in December, citing an unnamed official in Seoul.
The authorities had blocked road traffic in affected areas and ordered residents not to travel, said another South Korean newspaper, the JoongAng Ilbo.
North Korea suffers from food shortages and relies on food aid from foreign aid organisations and donors to feed its people.
The reported outbreak in the North comes as South Korean authorities work to contain the same disease by culling about two million livestock.
Food-and-mouth disease affects cloven-hoofed animals such as cattle, pigs, goats and deer. However, the disease very rarely affects humans.
If confirmed, it will be the second reported outbreak of the disease in the North. In 2007, the South sent a team of experts, medicine and equipment to the North to help contain the infection.
But bilateral relations between the two Koreans have worsened in recent months due to the sinking of a South Korean warship and the bombardment of a Southern border island by North Korea military last year.
