South Korea will send snipers to northern border to shoot pigs infected with African swine fever
- The government is acting on unofficial reports that the virus wreaking havoc across East Asia is spreading out of control in reclusive North Korea
- Pork accounts for 80 per cent of North Korea’s protein consumption and the disease will worsen hunger and malnutrition
South Korea will send military snipers and civilian hunters to its northern border on Tuesday to eliminate wayward, contagion-carrying pigs from Kim Jong-un’s reclusive neighbouring state.
Five wild boars were found dead in or near border areas this month before being tested positive for the viral haemorrhagic disease, officials in South Korea said. The finding reflects the freedom with which animals roam the area, and hints at a spillover of the deadly virus from North Korea, where unofficial reports indicate the disease is spreading out of control.
African swine fever has reached almost all areas of North Korea, and pigs in the western province of North Pyongan have been “wiped out”, said Lee Hye-hoon, who chairs the National Assembly’s intelligence committee, citing South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.
By official accounts, the virus wreaking havoc across Eastern Asia has virtually skipped over North Korea. It killed just 22 pigs in May on a cooperative farm about 260km north of Pyongyang, near the border with China, North Korea’s agriculture ministry said in a May 30 report to the World Organisation for Animal Health, or OIE.
But since then, there have been no follow-up reports to the Paris-based veterinary body, and scant coverage of the event in state media.
