SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Bees could be the next ambassadors in South Korea's efforts to improve ties with communist North Korea.
The South has sent livestock, vitamins and fertilizer to help alleviate food shortages in the impoverished North, and now it is considering a plan to dispatch five queen bees.Pyongyang asked for the bees from a Seoul-based non-governmental organization, the International Corn Foundation. The queens breed working bees, which make honey and pollinate.
"Cattles and goats went. There is no reason bees can't," said Yoo Yi-hyun, an official at Seoul's Unification Ministry.
But there's a snag: The five bees are not indigenous to the Korean peninsula and could push weaker, local breeds from their habitats.
"If this happens, you never know what kind of impact it will have on the ecological system," said Lim Won-taek of the International Corn Foundation. "And the North may blame us for damages."
The Unification Ministry, which handles contacts with North Korea, is consulting with agriculture officials about whether to send the bees.
South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il are expected to discuss economic aid to the North at a summit in June.