The Seoul Metropolitan Government has decided to plant 72,000 trees in the Kubuqi Desert of Inner Mongolia, which is the source of severe sandstorms that sweep across Asia. The aim is to prevent the so-called "yellow dust" by creating wooded areas in the desert.

The city will hold a signing ceremony on Tuesday with a group called Future Forest to pursue the tree-planting project. Seoul will invest W50 million (US$1=W1,183) in the project in conjunction with Future Forest and the All China Youth Federation to plant 72,000 poplar and desert willow trees and create a green ecosystem in the desert by the end of this year.

Poplars and desert willows are well suited to arid climates. The desert is located around 600 km west of Beijing and is the seventh-largest in the world. The region is known to be the source of 40 percent of the yellow dust which affects the Korean Peninsula every spring.