By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Nov. 16 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean man working at a North Korean industrial park has been confirmed to have the Influenza A virus, the first such infection to be detected north of the border, the Unification Ministry said Monday.
The worker, 32, who authorities would only identify by his family name Seo, was urgently transferred to South Korea on Saturday morning on signs of high temperature at the joint park in the North's border town of Kaesong, said ministry spokesman Chun Hae-sung. He tested positive for H1N1 infection late night Saturday.
"He was brought here because there's no facility at Kaesong park to test for the new flu," Chun said, adding he was now in stable condition.
Seo's case raised concerns of possible infection of North Korean workers at the factory park, where about 40,000 North Koreans work for about 110 South Korean businesses. Chun said Seo has mostly worked in his company office in Kaesong and had little contact with local workers at its factory.
Three other South Korean workers who were in frequent contact with Seo also returned to the South for checkups. "All of them tested negative," the spokesman said.
In an Oct. 30 report, North Korea said no Influenza A cases have been reported in the country, a claim that remains highly dubious amid the rapid spread of the pandemic in the cold weather. Sixty-four South Koreans have died of the disease as of Monday.
Any contact with the H1N1 virus could be particularly dangerous to people in North Korea, many of whom are undernourished and may have impaired immune systems, North Korea watchers say.
The South Korean government provided 30 doses of the anti-viral drug Tamiflu for South Korean workers at the Kaesong park last week.
In May, the World Health Organization supplied an emergency stockpile of 35,000 Tamiflu tablets each to North Korea and about 70 developing countries.