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S. Korean island to send tangerines to N. Korea despite frozen ties
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, Jan. 12 (Yonhap) -- The provincial government of Jeju Island will go ahead with its annual shipment of tangerines and carrots to North Korea this week despite the central government's refusal to pay part of the cost, officials said Monday.
The semi-tropical island has sent more than 10,000 tons of tangerines and carrots to North Korea every winter since 1998, with the central government paying for about half the cost.
But the humanitarian project came to a halt this winter as Seoul's Unification Ministry refused its customary funding of the shipments amid frozen inter-Korean relations.
The Jeju government decided to send a smaller shipment of aid this year -- 300 tons of tangerines and 1,000 tons of carrots worth about 600 million won (US$441,176) -- to North Korea starting on Friday, ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun and Jeju officials said.
"The North said it will receive the shipment as part of non-governmental inter-Korean projects," the spokesman said. "The ministry will also approve the shipment."
South Korea's Lee Myung-bak government suspended its customary food and fertilizer aid to the impoverished state last year for the first time in a decade, as North Korea cut off dialogue and intensified its anti-Seoul rhetoric.
But non-governmental aid continued, with a South Korean farmers' organization, the Korea Peasants League, shipping rice to North Korea last week following a shipment of food aid worth 380 million won for mothers and children in North Korea from the Buddhist organization Jungto Society.
Tangerines are a local specialty that do not grow in North Korea's cold weather. Jeju Island initially intended to send 10,000 tons of tangerines and carrots, but the amount was slashed as it had to fund the aid on its own.
The humanitarian project started when inter-Korean relations warmed after then President Kim Dae-jung took office in 1998. Kim received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 after holding the first-ever inter-Korean summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-il.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
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