South, North join in plant study

South Korea is going into a partnership with the North to conduct a five-year, 1.3 billion won ($1 million) scientific study of plant life on the peninsula. “We came to an agreement with officials from the North’s Science Institute to make an all-out flora of the Korean Peninsula until 2007,” said Joung Hyouk, the head of South Korea’s Research Institute of Bio-science and Biotechnology. A “flora” is a treatise or list of native plants containing information about type, geographical distribution and characteristics. Mr. Joung said he drew up the agreement with Hong Jong-whi, a director of the North’s Science Institute, in Beijing on Feb. 26. Fifty botanists from the South and 80 from the North will participate in the research and travel across the peninsula.