The nation’s southern resort island of Jeju has made a proposal to North Korea to establish a sea route for a cruise tour between the two sides.
 
Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong said Wednesday that the South Korean government approved contacting the North with the proposal.
 
He added that the cruise project would help President Park Geun-hye’s trust-building process on the Korean Peninsula by increasing inter-Korean exchange and cooperation.
 
The governor said the provincial government has also proposed to North Korea creating a joint expedition to Mount Halla in Jeju and Mount Baekdu in the North. He added that resuming the project of sending Jeju tangerines to the North, which was suspended in 2010, has also been proposed to Pyongyang.
 
The operation of ships between the two Koreas is currently prohibited under the so-called May 24 sanctions that Seoul slapped on Pyongyang following the North’s sinking of the South’s Cheonan warship in 2010.
 
Won said, however, that even under the sanctions, it will be possible for an overseas-registered cruise ship to travel between Jeju and the North through a third country.
 
He said if Seoul patches up relations with Pyongyang in the future and eventually lifts the sanctions on the North, a direct cruise line between Jeju and the North will be able to be established.