The World On arirang

South Korea has been gripped by mounting concerns over the African swine fever virus. The first reported case of the disease was confirmed in the city of Paju in Gyeonggi-do Province on September 17. There is no known cure or vaccine for the virus, which is highly contagious and has a near-100% mortality rate for infected pigs. The South Korean government has pulled all stops to prevent the disease from spreading, issuing a 48-hour standstill order while culling thousands of animals as a precautionary measure. African swine fever, which was first discovered in Kenya in 1921, has been mostly limited to Africa and Europe until last August, when it broke out in China and then quickly spread across the rest of the Asian continent. There have also been reports that North Korea's hog industry has been devastated by the disease, after the regime first informed the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) of an outbreak back in May. The crisis has even forced China to exempt American pork import from extra tariffs despite the ongoing trade war between the U.S. and China. In this week's edition of 'Foreign Correspondents', we sit down with our panel of journalists to talk more about the various issues related to the African swine fever outbreak.