An outbreak of bird flu in North Korea was spreading fast from the capital to provincial areas where far poorer quarantine measures were in place, a South Korean news agency said.
  
North Korea said two days earlier that it had detected the virus at two or three poultry farms in Pyongyang and had destroyed hundreds of thousands of chickens.
  
It did not say when the virus was discovered nor when the cull took place.
  
"Damage from the bird flu is increasingly being reported at chicken farms in other regions," an unnamed official involved in business with North Korea told Yonhap new agency.
  
The situation could quickly deteriorate because rural areas have much poorer quarantine systems that the capital, he added.
  
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said that the communist nation appeared to have taken the right step by ordering a massive cull.
  
The UN body has offered assistance, and hoped to obtain a sample of the virus for testing, said Kumara Rai, head of communicable diseases at the WHO regional office in New Delhi.
  
South Korean official said they are ready to send quarantine equipment and medical goods to help North Korea prevent the spread of the epidemic.
  
Seoul has urged Pyongyang to provide detailed information of the outbreak, including the specific strain of the disease and the scale of damage so far.
  
South Korea took measures to stop the spread of bird flu from North Korea when unconfirmed reports of an outbreak were published two weeks ago.