North Korea gets yaks and camels from China

Snow-covered yaks rest outside the Rongbo Monastery at the foot of Mount Everest in this file photo dated May 3, 2008.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China may not publicly disclose much of its aid or exports to poverty-struck, nuclear-armed North Korea, but state media Thursday let in a crack of light on the issue by announcing the export of yaks and camels.

The official Xinhua news agency said a zoo in the northern Chinese city of Dalian had exported two yaks and four camels to reclusive North Korea.

"This is the first time wild animals have been exported to North Korea from either Dalian or Liaoning," the brief report said, referring to the province in which Dalian is located.

It gave no details of their ultimate destination in North Korea, nor why the country may have wanted the animals.

Relations between China and neighbouring North Korea, once described as being as close as "lips and teeth," have soured in recent years, especially since Pyongyang began a controversial nuclear program.

But Beijing still provides some energy and food aid, fearing that if North Korea collapses it could destabilise large parts of northeastern China.

North Korea accused the United States Thursday of planning a nuclear attack in a report which came as U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton flew to Seoul for talks on defusing Pyongyang's military threat.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Valerie Lee)