North Korea confirms bird flu outbreak

28/03/05 North Korea has for the first time confirmed an outbreak of deadly bird flu at its poultry farms and said hundreds of thousands of chickens had been culled to contain it.

The North's official Korean Central News Agency quoted quarantine authorities as reporting cases at up to three chicken farms in the capital Pyongyang.

North Korea had previously declared itself free of the disease which has swept through much of East Asia, killing 48 humans and millions of birds since late 2003.