A South Korean vehicle passes the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) office in Paju before entering the Kaesong industrial complex, in Gyeonggi province of South Korea, Sept. 16, 2013. (Xinhua/Park Jin-hee)
A delegation of Republic of Korea (ROK) officials and experts was traveling to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Monday for three days of talks on forestry cooperation, Yonhap reported.
The 10-member team is led by Lim Sang-seop, a senior official with ROK's Korea Forestry Service.
The talks form part of the efforts to implement an agreement reached during the working-level talks between the two sides in October.
ROK sent about 50 tons of pesticides to the DPRK late last month to help it combat the spread of pine tree diseases, Yonhap said.
The ROK side will review the distribution of the chemicals and visit a local tree nursery and other facilities to discuss ways of expanding cooperation.with their DPRK counterparts
In August, the two sides conducted a joint field survey of the area near Mount Kumgang on the DPRK's east coast to examine the damage caused by the diseases.
They also agreed during talks in October to push for the modernization of 10 tree nursery plants in the DPRK this year, while promising to work together in combating forest fires and protecting ecosystems, Yonhap added.
Meanwhile, officials from the two nations will also meet this week to discuss cooperation in the health sector, including exchanging information on infectious diseases, ROK's unification ministry said Monday.
The meeting will be held Wednesday at the joint liaison office in the DPRK border town of Kaesong, which is a follow-up on an agreement reached in November to cooperate in preventing the spread of infectious diseases and exchange information on such diseases on a trial basis this year.
During the meeting, the two sides are expected to exchange influenza-related information and share data on infectious diseases that could affect their countries next year, the ministry said.
The ministry also said that the two Koreas will finalize a cooperation project to unearth historic relics in the Manwoldae site in Kaesong on Monday and resume the work in February next year.
