The government has finished setting up barbed wire fences in the North Korea border areas in an effort to block the spread of African swine fever (ASF).

In a meeting on ASF at the government complex in Sejong City on Sunday, Agriculture Minister Kim Hyeong-soo said that the government has installed barbed wires in nine areas in Paju, Yeoncheon and Cheorwon to contain the spread of the deadly animal virus.

Kim then instructed to swiftly install barbed wires in major pathways to capture wild boars, while ordering the mobilization of teams to hunt the hogs with rifles in the areas where hunting has been allowed.

The minister also called for precautionary monitoring efforts to find corpses of wild boars infected with the early stages of ASF, and instructed thorough disinfection activities around the streams and roads in the border areas.