SEOUL: The H1N1 flu has struck the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Pyongyang acknowledged yesterday, although it was unclear whether there were any fatalities from the virus that has been circling the globe for months.

The DPRK made its first acknowledgment of an H1N1 outbreak with a short dispatch in state media citing nine confirmed cases in northwestern Sinuiju on the Chinese border and in Pyongyang, the capital.

The official Korean Central News Agency reported that a quarantine system to prevent the spread of the disease was in place and that medical treatment was under way. The KCNA report did not mention any virus-related deaths or say how the flu spread to the DPRK, which is selective about who can enter the country.