SEOUL, South Korea  - Scientists say tests showed cattle and pigs near the small village of Paju were infected with foot-and-mouth disease - the first confirmed outbreak in Asia since nearly all Taiwan's pigs were wiped out three years ago.

Symptoms of the highly communicable disease began showing up last month in Paju, 30 miles north of Seoul, and then Hongsong, 60 miles south of Seoul where officials are still conducting tests. South Korean officials have been slaughtering infected animals, quarantining farms and forbidding them to transport livestock.

On March 26, 13 head of cattle also were destroyed at three farms in southern Japan, 10 of which showed foot-and-mouth symptoms. But Japan has not yet determined whether any of them were suffering from the disease.

Japan and South Korea both stopped importing beef and pork from one another, and Australia, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore banned them from both countries.

"The disease that infected cattle in the Paju area is confirmed to be foot-and-mouth disease," Chin Young-hwa, a spokesman at the National Veterinary Research and Quarantine Service, told The Associated Press on Sunday. "We will continue to take measures as we have been already."

Last week, 105 head of cattle were slaughtered in Paju. Authorities said 20 other cattle in the same area began showing similar symptoms late Sunday.

Over the weekend, 93 head of cattle and pigs were killed in Hongsong, South Korea's vice agriculture minister, Kim Dong-gun, said Sunday.

The highly communicable disease often leaves animals with a declining appetite, fevers, and blisters around their mouths and hooves, and can cause death. Taiwan destroyed 3.6 million pigs - 80 percent of its total - in 1997, the last time foot-and-mouth disease broke out in Asia.

Unlike mad cow disease, which is believed to cause a brain-wasting ailment in humans, foot-and-mouth disease cannot be passed on to people.

On Friday, South Korea said it was willing to destroy 350,000 cattle and pigs within a 12-mile radius of the farms in Paju. The government also plans to buy the meat or reimburse farmers who have to sell their meat at lower prices.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture Ministry said hundreds of pigs in Hongsong had been transported to Seoul and surrounding areas shortly before the movement of livestock was banned there Sunday. Quarantine officials isolated the pigs for tests, it said.

The government was also checking on how many other cattle and pigs have been moved out of the two areas since last month, while almost 1,000 quarantine officials were conducting tests on selected farms across the nation, it said.

Television footage showed soldiers setting up roadblocks in Hongsong.

Residents were not allowed to transport their livestock, and all vehicles moving in and out of the area were forced to roll slowly across thick spongy rugs doused with chemicals that suppress the disease.

Authorities were inoculating hundreds of thousands of animals in the two areas. Officials burned barns and suspended imports of Chinese hay suspected of having transmitted the disease.

South Korea last year exported 89,000 tons of pork to Japan, the largest destination for the country's pork exports. South Korea exports little beef.