The Republic of Korea said on Thursday it had agreed to a request from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to install thermal-imaging cameras at their Kaesong joint industrial zone to prevent the spread of the MERS virus into the DPRK.

Kaesong lies 10 km over the border in the DPRK, and about 500 ROK citizens travel there every day to manage factories that employ around 53,000 DPRK workers.

"At the request of Pyong-yang, we will provide a number of thermal-imaging cameras to be set up in Kaesong," an official from the ROK unification ministry said.