Officials from South and North Korea are meeting in the North's border city of Gaesong Friday to seek measures to contain the bird flu outbreak in the Stalinist state.

The discussions will focus on Seoul's provision of additional quarantine equipment and medicine to the North to combat the deadly avian influenza.

In response to Pyongyang's request for help, Seoul is planning to ship 720 million won worth of quarantine equipment, including test kits, decontamination equipment and sprays, to North Korea's west coast port of Nampo on Saturday.

Late last month, North Korea admitted that it culled more than 200-thousand chickens after bird flu had broken out at two to three chicken farms.

Shortly after the North's confirmation, a bird flu expert at the Food and Agriculture Organization visited the communist state. He said the virus was not the same viral strain that had previously killed dozens of people in Asia.