Jeju will ship equipment worth 220 million won (S$236,000), such as pens, feeders, heat lamps and ventilators, reports The Straits Times.

When the farm in Pyongyang is completed, possibly by May, Jeju will ship 100 of the black pigs which are native to the semi-tropical southern island.

"We expect this will help provide nutrition for children and the elderly in the North and pass down our breeding expertise," Kang Won-Myoung, an official handling the project, told Yonhap news agency.

The ship will also carry tangerines and carrots as part of Jeju's annual aid to the North, which is beset by severe food shortages.

The Jeju provincial government set up the project when a group of islanders and officials visited Pyongyang in late 2007.

It was suspended for about a year as North-South ties worsened but the North last September formally requested a start to the scheme, island officials were quoted as saying.

Inter-Korean relations worsened after conservative President Lee Myung-Bak took office last February and vowed to take a firmer line with the North.

The Seoul government last year failed to ship its customary annual aid of hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rice and fertiliser, after Pyongyang made no request for it. But local South Korean groups have continued assistance.