Via Yonhap News: S. Korea believes no flu outbreak yet in North. Excerpt:
North Korea's claim of not having found any outbreak of Influenza A (H1N1) yet in the country appears credible, a senior official here said Monday, citing a joint industrial park in the North that remains insulated.
North Korea has repeatedly emphasized its stepped-up quarantine systems at the airport and border posts, apparently on alert over the pandemic that has claimed thousands of lives around the world.
Any contact with the H1N1 virus could be particularly dangerous to people in North Korea, many of whom are undernourished and may have impaired immune systems, observers here say.
"Had North Korea had any cases of the new flu, I think it would say so to the international community because it cannot cope with the outbreak on its own," the official, who oversees North Korea affairs, said in an informal meeting on condition on anonymity.
The official cited the joint factory park in the North's border town of Kaesong, where there hasn't been a single case of type-A flu discovered among about 40,000 North Korean workers employed there.
South Korea has set up heat detection cameras at its transit offices at the inter-Korean border and checks the body temperatures of the hundreds of South Koreans who daily commute to the park. On-spot medical checkups have also been strengthened at a hospital inside the joint park, Seoul officials say.
"(Looking at) the Kaesong park, we can glean the situation in North Korea. There have been no North Korean workers yet who have been infected with the new flu virus," the official said.
On Friday, the North's Korean Central News Agency said "strict anti-epidemic work is now under way" and that "no A/H1N1 flu has yet occurred" in the country.
The North has stepped up quarantine inspections at its airport, trade ports and border posts "to cope with the situation where the number of new influenza cases is on the steady increase in the countries and region geographically close to the DPRK (North Korea)," the report said.
South Korea plans to raise its national epidemic alert to its highest "red" level on Tuesday, with nearly 9,000 people being confirmed as new flu patients every day. Forty people have died so far.
North Korea has been conscious of outside skepticism about its claim of being free of the pandemic.
"Such questions are understandable, but we would have no reason to hide if we have any patients," Pak Myong-su, vice chairman of the North's State Emergency Anti-epidemic Commission, said in a media interview in early October. He noted that North Korea had promptly reported a 2005 outbreak of avian influenza to U.N. agencies.
