North Korea may be facing an out-of-control African swine fever that threatens its food security.

The North Korean Ministry of Agriculture on May 30 sent a report to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) saying that 22 pigs in the country died from African swine cholera on a farm near the border with China. Since then, the OIE has not received any further reports, nor has North Korean media mentioned it, raising suspicions that Pyongyang is seeking to conceal domestic pig cholera.

African swine fever does not directly harm human health, but if the outbreak goes out of control, it can kill most pigs in North Korea within a week, putting food security in the country. danger.

"This virus is seriously damaging the economy because farmers cannot now make money from raising pigs, while the Korean economy is embargoed," said Cho Chunghi, a researcher at Good Farmers. Non-governmental headquarters in Seoul, said.

The World Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has no other information about the African swine cholera epidemic in Korea other than the report OIE received, according to Wantanee Kalpravidh, regional manager at the Animal Disease Emergency Center cross the borders of the United Nations. FAO is waiting for approval to send a representative to North Korea, she said on October 11.

But according to Ahn Chan-il, a former Korean soldier who defected in 1979 and is now head of the International Research Institute for Korea, once Pyongyang informed the African swine cholera to a national organization. In fact, the situation may be out of control. "It's like the end of the world is happening," he said.

The epidemic has spread to most areas in North Korea and the herd of pigs in the northwestern province of Pyongan has been "wiped out," Lee Hye-hoon, chairman of the Korean National Assembly Intelligence Committee, told the agency. National Intelligence of this country said.

Poor disease control capacity is a threat to the entire Korean peninsula, where the virus can become a regular epidemic. That will make it more difficult to stop the disease, and it can also spread to neighboring China and Russia.

In North Korea, pigs are often raised in small farmers instead of state-owned and collective farms. This will make it virtually impossible to stop the spread of the disease, especially when North Korea has no experience in preventing and mitigating animal disease, Cho said.

Pig cholera will further worsen hunger and malnutrition, said Cho, who defected from North Korea in 2011. Many households in North Korea raise pigs to earn money to buy rice and may face famine when pigs die from disease.

Food production in North Korea is expected to be lower than every year in the last months of this year due to prolonged drought, FAO said last month. An estimated 40% of the North Korean population, or 10.1 million people, need emergency food assistance, according to a UN review last April.

"Pork accounts for about 80% of the protein consumed in North Korea. With international sanctions, the country will find it difficult to find alternative sources," according to Cho.