The government will provide aid for North Korea to help eradicate malaria north of the border.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said the government will donate nearly one-point-one million dollars to the North through the World Health Organization for medical supplies, and to help North Korea train health officials to fight the infectious disease.

The supplies will be sent in two shipments. The first batch of insecticides and mosquito nets will be shipped from Incheon Port to the North's Nampo Port on Friday.

The second batch, including anti-malaria supplies for around one-point-eight million people and medication, will be sent sometime next month.

The number of malaria patients increased to over 23-thousand last year from around seven-thousand in 2007.

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