The North Korean government denied a report that a woman was infected with the bird flu in Pyongyang.

North Korean officials from the Agriculture Ministry and Veterinary Services Bureau told the U.N. officials in Beijing that there have been no avian influenza outbreaks among humans or poultry in the North.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization representative to China, Noureddin Mona, said that he was informed of the case by his colleagues in Pyongyang.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Japanese human rights group claimed that a woman infected with the avian virus was admitted to a hospital in Pyongyang in December.

Last April, the Stalinist nation culled over 210,000 poultry after a bird flu outbreak.