South Korea will deploy snipers and hunters to the northern border to eliminate pigs carrying germs from North Korea.

South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture said Tuesday that the government will also use a drone equipped with a thermal imaging camera to detect pigs suspected of being infected with African swine fever near the border.

These measures are aimed at eliminating wild pigs in areas including Incheon, Seoul, Goseong and the Bukhan River. South Korean officials said five wild boars were found dead in or near the border area this month. The test results later showed that they were positive for African swine virus.

The findings raise concerns that animals wandering along the border could spread the swine flu virus from North Korea, where unofficial reports suggest that African swine fever has gone out of control. Lee Hye-hoon, chairman of the South Korean parliament's intelligence committee, said the African swine cholera epidemic had spread to most areas of North Korea, even pigs in North Pyongan province were "wiped out". .

The Ministry of Agriculture released a report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) on May 30 saying that 22 pigs died from cholera on a farm near the border with China. Since then, OIE has not received any further reports, nor did North Korean media address this issue. North Korea is suspected of trying to hide domestic pig cholera.

South Korea has repeatedly asked North Korea to join in a joint effort to combat the spread of the disease, but Pyongyang did not respond. "The fact that North Korea reported an outbreak of the disease to an international organization shows that the situation may have been out of their control," said Ahn Chan-il, a former North Korean soldier who defected in 1979 and now leads the way. Korea Research Institute in Korea, said.