A suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was reported at a farm in Cheongsong, about 285 kilometers (177 miles southeast of Seoul, the government said Tuesday.
The report came earlier in the day that 16 pigs at the farm showed symptoms, the Ministry of Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries said.
South Korean government officials are conducting quarantine inspections at the site and plan to announce the results today.
If confirmed, it will be the first outbreak of FMD in seven months after the latest case occurred at a pig farm in Yeongcheon, 344 kilometers (213 miles) southeast of Seoul, on April 20 this year.
South Korea was forced to kill about 3.5 million livestock, mostly cow and pigs, last winter because of the country's severest outbreak of FMD.