Seoul's aid agency chief wants peace park in China's desert region

BEIJING, May 17 (Yonhap) -- The chief of South Korea's foreign assistance agency
said Sunday he hopes to construct an ecological park in a desert region of China,
after wrapping up his five-day trip to the neighboring country.
"I have an idea for an ecological park in the deserts of northern China, along
with the current tree-planting campaign," Park Dae-won, president of the Korea
International Cooperation Agency, said at Beijing Capital International Airport
before returning to Seoul.
"I conceived the plan while visiting regions where South Korea and China are
conducting a joint afforestation project to plant trees and slow down the
expansion of desert in the Nei Menggu area."
China's north, characterized by the Gobi Desert, has been plagued by
desertification due to rapid deforestation, overgrazing and climate change. Dust
storms that originate in the region regularly blow over South Korea and Japan,
carrying pollution from China's factories and causing environmental and
respiratory damage.
South Korea has been urging China to carry out a forest management plan in order
to reduce the incidence of the dust storms. The Korean government has raised 200
million dollars to invest in the plan until 2012.
Park visited Nei Menggu, a largely uninhabited region also known as Inner
Mongolia, where the tree-planting operation is being carried out by his agency.
"Preventing desertification not only concerns China, but all nations. It is also
attributable to global warming," Park said. "We may be able to persuade other
nations and organizations to join the project."
He said he will ask the Chinese government for permission to move ahead with the
construction of the ecological park.
"The park will be an extension of the existing afforestation project, and will
building a new peace regime in the Northeast Asia in the framework of the global
issue."
brk@yna.co.kr
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