SEOUL - With information on the spread of the A/H1N1 pandemic in North Korea closely guarded, the South Korean government is moving to supply the antiviral drugs Tamiflu and Relenza to workers in the North's Gaesung Industrial Zone as a gesture of compassion and reconciliation between the two Koreas.

More than 40,000 North Korean workers are currently working in the zone on the production of textiles, clothes and electronic components for South Korean companies. There are also about 1,000 South Korean employees in the industrial district representing South Korean companies.

"We have told the North that we are ready to supply Tamiflu and Relenza, enough for the treatment of 1,000 workers if it needs them for those potentially infected with the flu," Gang Jong-Suk, Administration and Cooperation Team Manager of South Korea's Unification Ministry, told PharmAsia News. "We haven't got the North's official response yet, but talks are proceeding smoothly."

South Korean officials also told their North Korean counterparts that they will supply additional doses of Tamiflu for 100 of the South Korean employees in the North's economic zone, Gang said. He added that the ministry also plans to start flu vaccinations for South Korea's five-person medical staff and North Korea's 17-person medical staff in the economic zone.

Gang's office will send two fever scan sensors to the North's industrial zone, located near the border between the closed-off communist North and the freewheeling capitalist South.

Despite longstanding political tensions dividing the South and the North, and acrimony between the U.S. and North Korea over the North's nuclear weapons program, inter-Korea trade has been on the rise in recent years as North Korean products made in the industrial zone enter the South Korean market.

When South Korea and the U.S. hammered out their free trade agreement in June 2007, the two sides did not clearly specify whether products made from the North's Gaesung economic zone should be automatically excluded from U.S. tariffs.

South Korea anticipates winning U.S. congressional approval of the trade pact by June 2010, well ahead of the November congressional elections. South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama hinted at the possibility of more talks or a partial revision of their bilateral trade agreement by the U.S. Congress (Also see "U.S. And South Korean Presidents Say More Negotiation Needed To Ratify Free Trade Agreement But Pharma Provisions Seen Intact" - Scrip, 23 November, 2009.).

No MNCs In The North

Currently, there are no South Korean or global pharmaceutical companies doing business in the North's economic zone. Aside from distributing foreign medical aid, it is not clear how North Korea provides drugs and medical devices to its citizens.

Meanwhile, in South Korea the H1N1 death toll of just over 100 people so far is much lower than expected, and is believed to be partly due to the ongoing nationwide vaccination of students and others classified as more vulnerable to the spread of the disease.

Health officials said the spread of the virus will likely lose momentum as more people are vaccinated. Students will be less likely to be infected after schools nationwide release their pupils for winter vacation later this month.

- Peter Chang (p.chang@elsevier.com)

South Korea Plans To Provide Tamiflu and Relenza To North Korea

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