South Korea and its North neighbour are doing their best to restore the healthy relationships after half-century conflict. This week, Seoul has airlifted 200 tonnes of tangerines to Pyongyang in return for a gift of pine mushrooms, Blue House has said.
Both North and South Koreas have exchanged the gifts on Sunday and Monday, the military planes flew to North Korea capital from the southern island of Jeju. Seoul’s defence ministry said that South Korean president Moon Jae-in remains committed to the recent warming of relations with North Korea. In September, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un also gave Mr Moon two white Pungsans, a hunting dog, as a repeat of a gesture in 2000, when Kim Jong Il gave South Korea’s Kim Dae Jung two Pungsans to mark an important meeting.
In its turn, North Korea gave two tonnes of pine mushrooms to its neighbour as a goodwill gesture last weekend. Pine mushrooms considered a healthy delicacy in the Asian countries, they are one of the North’s most-prized product.
Previous North Korea’s gift gave birth to six puppies
On Monday, President Moon tweeted that one of the dogs, named Gomi, had just given birth to six puppies. He explained: “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.” After it sent the Pungsans to the South, the North received two indigenous Jindo dogs in return.
Despite the warm exchange of gifts and warming the diplomatic climate between two Koreas, there have been no recent breakthroughs in US-led diplomacy aimed at stripping the North of its nuclear programme. The North said it was willing to deal away its growing nuclear weapons arsenal during talks with the US and the South earlier this year. Pyongyang has since taken measures such as dismantling its nuclear test site and parts of its rocket-engine testing facility.
