The government held an emergency meeting Monday to discuss the recent outbreak of bird flu in North Korea.

Officials from the ministries of agriculture and forestry, health and welfare and unification talked about strengthening quarantine measures to prevent the disease from spreading to South Korea.

They also discussed lending support to stop a further spread in the North.

One official warned that the situation in the North is very serious given that Pyongyang made an official announcement of the outbreak. The disease is believed to have originated in a chicken farm in downtown Pyongyang.

However, he added that bird flu has yet to affect South Korea.