South Korea ships tangerines to North, which sent mushrooms

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea has airlifted thousands of boxes of tangerines to North Korea in return for the North’s large shipments of pine mushrooms in September.

South Korea says it will send 200 tons of tangerines to North Korea by Monday afternoon.

Seoul’s Defense Ministry says military planes flew to Pyongyang twice on Sunday to deliver the fruits and do the same on Monday.

After September’s inter-Korean summit talks in Pyongyang, North Korea gave South Korea 2 tons of pine mushrooms as a goodwill gesture.

The tangerine airlifting is a sign that the two Koreas are pushing ahead with efforts to improve ties despite a stalemated global diplomacy on North Korea’s nuclear program.

North Korea recently postponed high-level talks with the United States.