SEOUL, Nov 27 (Reuters) - North Korea is stepping up measures to prevent bird flu, its official media said on Monday, following an announcement over the weekend from the South that it had an outbreak of the highly virulent H5N1 strain. North Korea, which had an outbreak of bird flu at two poultry farms near Pyongyang in February 2005, said it had inoculated poultry and increased checks along its borders. "Quarantine measures against avian influenza are being conducted with stepped up activity," KCNA news agency quoted a health official as saying. South Korea's agriculture ministry ordered the culling of 236,000 poultry within a 500-metre (1,640-ft) radius of a poultry farm in North Cholla province about 170 km (100 miles) from Seoul where the H5N1 strain was found. Quarantine authorities also banned the shipment of more than 5 million poultry from 221 farms within a 10-km (6.2-mile) radius of the farm.
