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  • North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

    North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

    KWANG-TAE KIM Associated Press Writer
    7:06 AM MST, December 10, 2009

    SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? North Korea agreed Thursday to accept medicine from South Korea to fight an outbreak of swine flu, a Cabinet minister said, in a development that could improve relations between the nations after a deadly maritime clash.

    "Today, the North expressed its intention to receive" the medical aid, South Korean Unification Minister Hyun In-taek told reporters.

    North Korean state media reported Wednesday that there were nine confirmed swine flu cases in the country.

    Hyun separately told lawmakers that Seoul plans to send enough doses of the antiviral Tamiflu for 500,000 North Koreans, according to his spokesman Chun Hae-sung.

    Chun said the two sides could discuss the timing of the delivery in a meeting at the border village of Panmunjom as early as Friday.

    The move came two days after South Korean President Lee Myung-bak offered unconditional aid to North Korea to help contain the virus ? the government's first offer of humanitarian aid since Lee took office in early 2008 with a hard-line policy toward the North.

    The aid offer indicates a desire by the Koreas for better relations despite a naval clash near their disputed western sea border last month. The fighting killed one North Korean sailor and wounded three others, according to South Korean military officials.

    North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday that a quarantine system was in place to fight swine flu.

    It did not mention any virus-related deaths or say how the flu had spread to the isolated country, which maintains strict control over its citizens' movements and is selective about who can enter its borders.

    The World Health Organization, which has an office in Pyongyang, said no deaths due to swine flu had been recorded in North Korea. Nine children aged 11 to 14 were being treated with Tamiflu, it said in a statement Wednesday.

    Officials were carrying out surveillance to contain the virus' spread and had enough stock of Tamiflu in affected areas, WHO said, adding that there was no need to panic. Tamiflu is made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche Holding AG.

    However, a Seoul-based civic group that first reported the outbreak earlier in the week said Wednesday that swine flu has killed about 50 people in North Korea since early November. It would not provide the source of its information.

    Swine flu has killed more than 8,700 people worldwide since the first outbreaks were reported in Mexico in April, according to WHO.

    Flooding and economic mismanagement in the 1990s destroyed North Korea's farming sector, and it now relies on outside handouts to feed its people. Nuclear defiance has further tightened U.N. sanctions on the government.

    ___

    Associated Press writer Hyung-jin Kim contributed to this report.

    "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
    -Nelson Mandela

  • #2
    Re: North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

    Seoul to spend 15 million dollars on flu aid to N.Korea

    AFP
    AFP - 4 hrs 39 mins ago
    {"AFP/File""Won Dai-Yeon"}


    South Korea is preparing to ship medical supplies worth more than 15 million dollars to help North Korea fight an outbreak of swine flu, officials said Monday.

    The unification ministry, which handles cross-border ties, said the shipment would include antiviral drugs for 500,000 patients -- Tamiflu for 400,000 and Relenza for 100,000 -- and sanitation supplies.

    The aid will cost an estimated 17.8 billion won (15.3 million dollars), which will be financed by a state fund for inter-Korean cooperation, it said.

    Spokesman Chun Hae-Sung said Seoul would send the shipment as soon as possible, and definitely by the end of the year. But the North, which had accepted the offer, had not yet set a firm date.

    North Korea Wednesday reported nine cases of (A)H1N1 in the capital Pyongyang and the city of Sinuiju bordering China. No death toll was given.

    The announcement confirmed outside reports of an outbreak in the secretive and impoverished communist state.

    The drugs shipment will be the first direct South Korean government aid since relations soured last year, although Seoul has funded assistance to Pyongyang through private groups.

    Good Friends, a Seoul-based welfare group with cross-border contacts, quoted an unidentified Sinuiju city official as saying more than 40 people had died of the swine flu in the border city alone.

    Observers say the virus could pose a particular threat to the North because of malnutrition amid persistent food shortages and a lack of drugs such as Tamiflu.

    "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
    -Nelson Mandela

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

      NKorea thanks SKorea for swine flu medicine

      By KWANG-TAE KIM (AP) ? 13 hours ago

      SEOUL, South Korea ? North Korea made a rare expression of gratitude Friday after South Korea sent swine flu medicine, an official said, a day after Pyongyang threatened retaliation over naval drills near their disputed sea border.

      A convoy of South Korean trucks crossed the heavily armed border into North Korea earlier in the day to deliver enough doses of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 500,000 North Koreans.

      The shipment marks the South Korean government's first humanitarian aid since conservative President Lee Myung-bak took office in early 2008 with a pledge to pursue a hard-line policy toward the North and hold it accountable to its nuclear disarmament pledges.

      South Korean medical officials explained to North Korean counterparts how to use the medicine and its side effects, Kim Young-il, the head of the South Korean delegation, said after returning from the North's border city Kaesong.

      "We express thanks to South Korea for sending medicine," Kim quoted North Korean Health Ministry official Han Su Chol as saying.

      North Korea acknowledged for the first time last week that swine flu had broken out in the country after Seoul offered unconditional aid to help contain its spread. The North did not mention any virus-related deaths, but a Seoul-based civic group said the disease killed about 50 people in the North since early November.

      The delivery came a day after North Korea threatened retaliation over what it claimed were South Korean naval drills around their disputed sea border, accusing Seoul of attempting to escalate tension.

      On Thursday, the North's Korean Central News Agency cited an unidentified source as saying the South Korean military staged underwater explosive exercises around the border ? the scene of a naval clash last month that left one North Korean sailor dead and three others wounded.

      The drills represent "a threat and an unpardonable act of crime against us," KCNA said.

      "We cannot but view this as a premeditated provocation aimed at raising tension in the militarily sensitive waters," it said. "We will deal a merciless retaliatory blow if the South Korean warlike forces keep staging military provocations."

      South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff dismissed the North's claim, saying Friday the drills were routine and took place in the South's waters.
      North Korea has often made such accusations and the South has rejected them. Pyongyang, known for its use of fiery rhetoric, also regularly threatens South Korea with destruction.

      The communist North does not recognize the sea boundary, drawn by the United Nations at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, and has long claimed it should be redrawn farther south. The dispute led to deadly skirmishes in 1999, 2002 and last month.

      Relations between the two Koreas soured badly after Lee halted unconditional aid to the North in line with his pledge to get tough on the communist neighbor over its nuclear weapons development.

      The two sides are still technically at war as the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

      "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
      -Nelson Mandela

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

        ASIA NEWS
        <SMALL>DECEMBER 30, 2009, 6:50 A.M. ET</SMALL> <!-- ID: SB126217264529610047 --><!-- TYPE: Asia News --><!-- DISPLAY-NAME: Asia News --><!-- PUBLICATION: The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition --><!-- DATE: 2009-12-30 06:50 --><!-- COPYRIGHT: Dow Jones & Company, Inc. --><!-- ORIGINAL-ID: --><!-- article start --><!--CODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gswineCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gdevCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=nkoreaCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=skoreaCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=asiazCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gcatCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gcoldCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gdipCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gheaCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gmedCODE=DJII-SUBJECT SYMBOL=gpirCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=devgcozCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=dvpcozCODE=DJII-REGION SYMBOL=easiazCODE=SUBJECT SYMBOL=OASNCODE=STATISTIC SYMBOL=FREE-->
        North Korea Fights H1N1


        By JAEYEON WOO

        North Korea sent out a nationwide alert in recent days about the apparent worsening spread of H1N1 flu there, according to an aid group with contacts in the country.

        The notice by the Seoul-based Buddhist aid group Good Friends follows the South Korean government's shipment of 400,000 doses of the flu treatment Tamiflu and 100,000 doses of the treatment Relenza to its impoverished neighbor earlier this month amid fears that a delayed response to the disease in the North could lead to serious consequences for the South.Good Friends said this week that North Korean officials had issued a statement that said patients suffering from the disease should be given priority. The group said the statement was of a type issued only twice before, for seriously wounded soldiers during the 1950-1953 Korean War and for a deadly skirmish with South Korea in 2002.


        The true picture within highly restrictive North Korea is difficult to determine. Officials there couldn't be reached.


        On Dec. 9, North Korea's official Korea Central News Agency confirmed that nine people had contracted the epidemic, also known as swine flu, in the capital of Pyongyang and the city of Sinuiju.

        South Korean officials, who met with their North Korean counterparts during the flu-treatment shipments, said they were unclear on the situation. Lee Jong-joo, a deputy spokeswoman for South Korea's Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said that the fact that North Korea officially disclosed it is fighting the epidemic suggests it could be serious.

        "North Korean officials we met at that time said the country is setting up a tight disease control system and getting itself ready for an outbreak in the country," she said Wednesday.

        North Korean officials were "very grateful" for the South's donated flu treatment, said Kim Young-il, a manager at the ministry's humanitarian aid team.

        South Korea's aid to the North has dwindled since President Lee Myung-bak took office in 2008. Mr. Lee tied aid to the progress in talks to halt North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons. Talks have been slowed by Pyongyang's delaying tactics.

        Amid recent peace overtures by North Korea, the South Korean government said Monday it would provide North Korea with $22 million in general humanitarian aid.

        "Medication shipment alone is not enough. Since the infection is closely related to nutrition, the Seoul government should allow civil groups to resume their private aid works to efficiently fight against the disease," said Lee Woo-young, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies.

        Mr. Kim, of the Unification Ministry, said the government doesn't currently plan to ship more flu aid.

        According to the World Health Organization, H1N1 has caused at least 11,500 deaths world-wide. But H1N1 activity has been declining in much of the world, including east Asia, it said.

        http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126217264529610047.html?mod=WSJ_topics_obama
        "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
        -Nelson Mandela

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: North Korea agrees to accept medicine from South Korea to fight swine flu outbreak

          SKorea sends 2nd batch of swine flu aid to NKorea

          1 hour, 43 minutes ago
          <CODE class=norm WRAP="VIRTUAL">(AP:SEOUL, South Korea) South Korean trucks have crossed the border into North Korea to deliver a second batch of swine flu aid.

          Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo says South Korea sent 52,840 gallons (200,000 liters) of hand sanitizers to North Korea on Tuesday.

          South Korea sent enough doses of the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza for 500,000 North Koreans in December in its first direct humanitarian aid to the communist country in nearly two years. North and South Korea have remained in a state of war since 1953.

          North Korea acknowledged in December that swine flu had broken out in the country though hasn't mentioned any virus-related deaths.

          Tamiflu is made by Switzerland's Roche Group. Relenza is a procuct of GlaxoSmithKline.</CODE>
          <CODE class=norm WRAP="VIRTUAL"></CODE>
          <CODE class=norm WRAP="VIRTUAL">http://www.news.ino.com/headlines/?n...68969186738000


          </CODE>
          "Safety and security don't just happen, they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear."
          -Nelson Mandela

          Comment

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