N. Korea slaughters animals after hoof-and-mouth disease outbreak

The outbreak occurred in January at a farm in the capital, Pyongyang, sickening 431 cows, according to a North Korean government report dated Wednesday that was posted on the website of the Paris-based animal health agency, known by the initials OIE.

Since the outbreak, quarantine officials have killed 466 cows, including the sickened ones, as well as 2,630 pigs to prevent the spread of the disease, the North's Agricultural Ministry said. Some 100,000 animals within the 70-kilometre radius of the outbreak site will be vaccinated, it added.

The sickened cows were imported from Tieling, China, the report said.

The communist North has been suffering from food shortages since the mid-1990s, when natural disasters and mismanagement devastated its economy and led to a famine estimated to have killed some two million people.

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