North Korea has lifted a set of measures aimed at preventing the spread of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome outbreak as Seoul declared full control of the disease last month, the Unification Ministry said Tuesday.

The North said that as of Monday it stopped checking the body temperatures of South Koreans who move in and out of Kaesong Industrial Complex, a joint industrial park located in the North's border city of Kaesong, according to the ministry.

Since June, North Korea has used three thermal scanners that it borrowed from Seoul to measure the temperature of South Koreans entering the complex after South Korea reported its first infection in late May. MERS claimed 38 people with a total of 187 infections in South Korea.

"Since late June, North Korea had required South Koreans to wear masks and to submit a document on health conditions," said a ministry official, asking not to be named. "It had also limited contacts by South Koreans with North Koreans at the complex."

The official said that South Korea plans to retrieve the thermal devices from the North later in the day.

The reclusive communist country has been highly sensitive to the outbreak of contagious diseases because of concerns about its weak health care system. In 2014, Pyongyang imposed an entry ban on foreign tourists for about five months due to concerns over the deadly Ebola virus.

South Korea declared an end to the MERS virus outbreak on Dec. 24, more than seven months after the first case was confirmed in the country. (Yonhap)