South Korea plans to provide North Korea with devices to detect the MERS virus early next week so they could be installed at a joint industrial zone in the North, a Unification Ministry official said Friday. 

At the request of the North, South Korea plans to lend Pyongyang three thermal scanners for those who move in and out of the Kaesong Industrial Complex, where about 53,000 North Korean workers are employed, the official said, asking not to be named.

"Seoul plans to lend the thermal scanners to the North on Monday," said the official.  "South Korean firms operating at the zone will decide whether to provide masks to the North's workers soon."

Concerns about the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome are growing in the South as the virus has killed four South Koreans so far, while the number of those infected has increased to 41.

The reclusive communist country has been highly sensitive to the outbreak of contagious diseases due to its weak health care system. Last year, Pyongyang imposed an entry ban on foreign tourists for about five months due to concerns over the deadly Ebola virus.

This is not the first time that Seoul has provided such devices to Pyongyang at the request of the North.

In November, the South lent three thermal scanners to the North when fears of the Ebola virus gripped the world. In 2009, the North made a similar request to the South over concerns of avian flu.

A group of 124 South Korean firms operating at the complex plans to hold a meeting on Tuesday to discuss the issue of mask supply.

"It is highly likely that the companies will offer masks to North Korean workers," a company official said. (Yonhap)