Published : Oct. 22, 2018 - 21:10
SEOUL/KAESONG -- South and North Korea agreed Monday to jointly combat pine tree pests and other tree diseases until March next year as part of efforts to intensify their forestry cooperation.
The agreement was made during talks held at their joint liaison office in the North's border town of Kaesong.
Officials from the two Koreas shake hands at the meeting held in Kaesong, North Korea on Monday. Yonhap
"The South agreed to provide necessary drugs to combat pine tree pests in the middle of November. Their control of pests will continue until March," they said in a press release after the talks.
The talks were led by Park Chong-ho, deputy minister of the Korea Forest Service, and his North Korean counterpart, Kim Song-jun, a senior official of the ministry of environmental protection.
They also agreed to begin to "modernize" 10 tree nurseries in North Korea within this year and pursue the modernization project for other North Korean nurseries in phases, according to the press release.
In addition, they promised to work together to cope with forest fires and to seek cooperation in protecting ecosystems. The two will arrange seminars on forestry-related science technology and other topics.
Pine tree seedlings in a tree nursery near the border with North Korea. (Yonhap)
The talks marked the first subsequent meeting to discuss cooperation after the two Koreas' high-level meeting last week.
Over the results of the talks, however, the North Korean official grumbled, claiming that the meeting "fails to meet the expectations of the people."
"If these talks go just as they went today down the road, we will not harbor any expectations," Kim said while leaving the venue.
Though neither side gave details on the North's complaints, Seoul's top delegate, Park, said there are "some issues that require further discussions," hinting at limitations in pushing for cooperative projects due to sanctions on the communist country.
In a briefing after the high-level talks on Oct. 15, Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon called the pine tree pest issue the most urgent matter for North Korea.
In August, the two Koreas conducted a joint field survey of the region near Mount Kumgang on the North's east coast to examine the damage caused by diseases in trees, a follow-up step to their first meeting on forestry cooperation in July.
During their third summit in Pyongyang last month, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un agreed to actively promote environmental collaboration and achieve substantial results in their ongoing forestry cooperation. (Joint Press Corps-Yonhap)