S. Korea unsure if N. Korea has contained H1N1 flu

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Dec. 17 (Yonhap) -- South Korea expressed uncertainty Thursday over the
credibility of a recent North Korean report to the World Health Organization that
no additional cases of H1N1 flu have emerged since the recovery of the first
infected patients there.
The Unification Ministry said it has intelligence that contradicts what North
Korea has officially told the world body, which is part of the reason why Seoul
is going ahead with its plan to ship US$15 million worth of Tamiflu and other
anti-viral drugs to its isolated neighbor.
"Our judgment is that there are various kinds of information with regard to the
credibility (about the report) that there have been no new flu patients in
addition to the nine people," ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said at a press
briefing. She did not specify details on the intelligence.
North Korea acknowledged nine cases of the highly infectious disease in Pyongyang
and Sinuiju on the border with China on Dec. 9, but no further reports have come
out of the country.
WHO's New Delhi office, which monitors the flu outbreak in North Korea, told
Yonhap on Monday that the patients -- all schoolchildren aged between 11 and 14
-- have been cured and that no additional cases of the flu have since emerged.
The WHO attributed the information to a press release by the North's health
ministry.
South Korea offered to deliver flu medication for 500,000 people, an offer that
the North promptly accepted. Delivery is scheduled for Friday.
The spokeswoman said the aid is also meant to be a preemptive measure for the
winter, during which the spread of the H1N1 flu virus may speed up.
"We did not decide on the extent of the assistance because of the number of new
flu patients in North Korea," she said.
The Tamiflu aid will mark the first humanitarian assistance the South Korean
government has provided to its North Korean counterpart since conservative
President Lee Myung-bak took office last year. Lee cut off the unconditional aid
that his liberal predecessors had shipped to the North over the past decade, as
part of measures aimed at toughening up on the North's nuclear weapons program.
The inter-Korean aid comes amid a flurry of diplomacy between North Korea and the
United States on ways to resume a multilateral negotiating forum on ending the
nuclear stalemate.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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