South Korea is sending a ship of equipment and supplies to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to help the latter combat bird flu outbreak.

A South Korean ship left for the DPRK Saturday with 720 million won (713,000 US dollars) worth of equipment and supplies, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

The ship left South Korea's western port of Incheon and was due to arrive in DPRK's western port of Nampo a day later, officials at South Korea's Unification Ministry was quoted as saying.

The items range from diagnosis kits, antiseptics, disinfectant sprayers to antiseptic-spraying vehicles, they said.

The shipment was made at the request of the DPRK, which admitted for the first time in early April that an outbreak of bird flu forced it to cull over 218,000 chickens, the report said.

Source: Xinhua