Korea to plant trees in China to reduce `yellow dust`

The Seoul city government will help fund a tree-planting project in a Chinese desert to reduce the amount of harmful "yellow dust" blowing over Korea, the AFP reported.



According to the report the government agreed Tuesday to invest 50 million won ($42,000) in the planting project led by Future Forest, a Korean environmental group based in China.



The investment will be used to purchase and plant some 72,000 poplar and desert willow trees in Inner Mongolia`s Kubuqi Desert, some 600 kilometres west of Beijing.



"We who suffer from yellow dust hope it will contribute to solving the problem and improving the South Korea-Chinese friendly relationship," a Seoul city official told AFP.



He said the Kubuqi Desert, the world`s seventh largest, is blamed for causing 40 percent of "yellow dust" that blankets the Korean peninsula every spring.