North Korean quarantine officials had banned late last month South Korean pork and beef used in meals for workers at the complex. South Korean poultry had been banned in November last year in the wake of the bird flu outbreak in the South.

 

A source at a company operating in the complex said, "Meat sent from South Korea was used to prepare soup and dishes for South and North Korean workers at our plant. But due to the North Korean authority's ban, we are making side dishes with fish balls, tofu, and fried Alaska pollack."

 

The North has sensitively responded to outbreaks of infectious disease in livestock and poultry in the South due to weak quarantine capacity stemming from economic hardship. Pyongyang halted South Korean pork and beef imports in January last year, citing the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the South, but lifted the ban in October.

 

During the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, in 2003, the North banned the entry and departure of foreign nationals.