South swaps tangerines for DPRK’s mushrooms

SOUTH Korea has sent 200 tons of tangerines to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in return for mushrooms Pyongyang gave earlier, Seoul said yesterday, in the latest reconciliatory gesture between the neighbors.

Seoul is pushing ahead with a rapprochement with the nuclear-armed DPRK while its security ally the United States insists pressure on Pyongyang should be maintained until it denuclearizes.

The tangerines — a rarity in the DPRK — were being airlifted to Pyongyang from the southern island of Jeju, where they were grown, in four flights, the last one due yesterday afternoon.

The fruits reciprocate 2 tons of pine mushrooms sent by the DPRK leader Kim Jong Un during his September summit with the South’s President Moon Jaein, Seoul’s presidential office said.

The pine mushrooms — a delicacy claimed to help prevent heart diseases and diabetes — were distributed to Southern families separated from relatives in the DPRK.

“Tangerines are a speciality of the South that ordinary North Koreans normally don’t have access to,” Moon’s spokesman said on Sunday.

His office did not elaborate on the fruits’ value but media, citing local tangerine prices, estimated it at about 400 million won (US$350,000) to 500 million won.

Kim also gave Moon a pair of DPRK indigenous hunting dogs after the September summit — one of which gave birth to six puppies on Friday, according to the South Korean leader.