The Seoul government will step up efforts to prevent epidemics in preparation for the potential spread of infectious diseases from North Korea amid growing inter-Korean economic exchanges.

The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention said on Saturday that it will set up a quarantine station at Dora Mountain and Gosung, areas close to the inter-Korean border. The Center asked that travelers who visited the North and became sick immediately report their cases to the center.

The Disease Control Center also decided to provide medicine to North Korea to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis in the North, while helping the communist country improve its healthcare system.

The Center said that an employee who worked at the Gaesong Industrial Complex in August of 2003 had been treated for malaria.