Sunday, March 27, 2005 Posted: 4:39 AM EST (0939 GMT)

(CNN) -- North Korean officials for the first time have acknowledged that avian flu has broken out in the repressive country.

"Hundreds of thousands" of chickens were burned before burial to prevent spread of the disease, which can spread to humans, the country's official media outlet Korean Central News Agency said on Sunday.

However, KCNA said North Korea had no reports of human infection.

The report said the State Emergency Veterinary and Anti-Epizootic Committee was working on the problem, reporting outbreaks in "a few" locations, including the Hadang Chicken Farm, one of Pyongyang's largest.

"Upon its outbreak on those farms the committee lost no time to take emergency measures and meticulously organized veterinary and anti-epizootic work to prevent its spread to other poultry farms," the KCNA report said.

Given the non-existence of medical facilities and physicians in North Korea, this could get very bad very fast.