South Korea plans to help Cuba increase its food production and fight poverty with the World Food Program starting this year, its first move to promote development cooperation with Havana, the foreign ministry said Wednesday.
Seoul and the U.N. food agency inked a preliminary deal on Tuesday to join a US$3 million project aimed at beefing up food production in Cuba between 2015 and 2017, officials said.
"It is meaningful as the project will be Seoul's first development project with Cuba," the government said in a statement.
South Korea has no diplomatic ties with Cuba while Havana has maintained its relationship with North Korea.
But South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told lawmakers Tuesday that Seoul plans to make efforts to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba down the road.
Signs of improvement in the relations between the two nations have been growing in recent months.
In November, Seoul provided protective suits worth $1 million to Cuba in a bid to help hundreds of Cuban doctors do humanitarian work in Ebola-hit West Africa.
For the first time, Seoul will also participate in Cuba's International Book Fair, to be held in Havana from Feb. 12-22.
South Korea will display its literature books that have been translated into Spanish and English as well as children's books at the Korean booth during the fair. (Yonhap)
