North Korea is denying a report of a massive outbreak of bird flu in the Stalinist country last month.

A health program broadcast Tuesday on the North's state-run Central TV said avian influenza has never been detected in the North.

A senior health official said on the program that while bird flu has occurred in China, Japan and Southeast Asia, North Korea is free of the virus and has had no infection cases thus far in either poultry or humans.

On Tuesday, Yonhap News Agency in Seoul reported the outbreak of bird flu in North Korea, quoting a South Korean businessman who had met North Korean officials on a business trip to Beijing.

The report said bird flu killed thousands of chickens at a Pyongyang farm last month.