North Korea has confirmed for the first time a local outbreak of deadly bird flu.

Quoting quarantine officials, the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said avian influenza had recently broken out at two to three local chicken farms, including Hadang farm in Pyongyang.

The KCNA report, which was monitored by Seoul-based Yonhap news agency, did not specify the dates of the bird flu outbreak.

The KCNA said state health and quarantine officials "have buried and burnt hundreds of thousands of infected chickens at those farms" to prevent the disease from spreading to other areas.

The report said no employees have so far been infected.

North Korea had previously declared itself free of the disease that has swept through much of East Asia, killing 48 humans and millions of birds since late 2003.