South Korea airlifts 200 tons of tangerines to North Korea in return for shipments of pine mushrooms

The exchange is a sign of efforts to improve diplomatic relations

South Korea has airlifted 200 tons of tangerines to North Korea in return for shipments of pine mushrooms, officials said on Monday.

South Korean military planes flew to Pyongyang, North Korea’s capital, on Sunday and Monday to deliver the fruit from the southern island of Jeju, according to Seoul‘s defence ministry. The exchange is another sign that liberal South Korean president Moon Jae-in is moving ahead with efforts to improve ties with its neighbour despite stalemated global diplomacy on the North’s nuclear programme.

After a summit meeting between the Koreas in Pyongyang in September, North Korea gave South Korea two tons of pine mushrooms as a goodwill gesture. Pine mushrooms are white and brown fungi that are considered a healthy delicacy in Asia. They are one of the North’s most prized regional products, and the country shipped them to South Korea in 2000 and 2007 after previous summit talks.

After their summit, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also gave Moon a gift of two dogs, both white Pungsans. On Monday, Mr Moon tweeted that one of the dogs, named Gomi, gave birth to six healthy puppies last Friday.

“Six dogs were added to a gift of two dogs. I cannot help saying it’s a big fortune and I hope that South-North ties will be like this,” Mr Moon said.

Pungsan is a dog breed native to North Korea and is best known for its loyalty and bravery during hunting. North Korea sent a pair of Pungsans to South Korea after the 2000 summit, and South Korea gave two indigenous Jindo dogs to the North.

Despite warming ties between the Koreas, there have been no major recent breakthroughs in US-led diplomacy aimed at stripping the North of its nuclear programme.

South Korean president Moon Jae-in strokes Gomi, a gift from North Korea (South Korea Presidential Blue House via AP) (AP)

According to officials in Seoul and Washington, North Korea recently postponed high-level talks about its disarmament, which are to be held with the US. It also put off setting up a second summit between president Donald Trump and Kim.

After a provocative series of nuclear and missile tests last year, North Korea entered talks with the United States and South Korea this year, saying it was willing to deal away its growing nuclear weapons arsenal. The North has since taken measures such as dismantling its nuclear test site and parts of its rocket-engine testing facility, but US officials want it to take more significant, irreversible steps towards denuclearisation.

Mr Moon, who has met Mr Kim three times this year, believes that better ties between the Koreas will help resolve the nuclear issue.

South Korea’s unification ministry said on Monday that it had approved a visit by seven North Koreans to attend an academic forum in the South later this week. The forum will focus on regional issues, including Japan’s wartime mobilisation of labourers in the Asia-Pacific region.

On Saturday, Seoul said the two Koreas have finished withdrawing troops and firearms from some of their front-line guard posts as part of their agreements to lower military tensions. The Koreas have also halted military exercises along their border and have been clearing mines from a border area to conduct their first-ever joint searches for Korean War dead.

Associated Press