A civic group in Jeju Island will send 13-hundred tons of tangerines and carrots to North Korea.

Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun told reporters that the inter-Korean cooperation committee of Jeju will spend 600-million won, about 440-thousand dollars, on a project to send 300 tons of tangerines and a thousand tons of carrots to the North, beginning Friday. Kim added that the government will give the plan its seal of approval.

Initially, the civic group planned to send three-billion won worth of produce, but had to cut back as its request for the central government to cover over two billion won of the shipping cost was turned down.

Between 1998 and 2007, Jeju Island has sent some 46-thousand tons of tangerines and 17-thousand tons of carrots to the impoverished North, with the central government paying for about half the transportation cost.