South Korea China highest meeting, China hold high-level talks

 South Korea China highest meeting, China hold high-level talks.

South Korea has announced that it held talks with China's top diplomat over trade, denuclearisation and the coronavirus response.

Throughout the meeting, senior South Korean and Chinese officials on Saturday reaffirmed plans to arrange a summit between their leaders “at an early date” once coronavirus concerns subside, Seoul’s presidential office said.

The visit from Beijing was the first of its kind since the Covid-19 outbreak began late last year.

Vested Interest

The government of South Korean President Moon Jae-in has been eager to improve bilateral relations that have been strained since South Korea deployed a US anti-missile system on its soil in 2017 over Chinese objections. 

Moon had hoped to host Chinese President Xi Jinping in Seoul during the earlier half of the year, but the spread of Covid-19 prevented the visit.

Moon’s government is eager to resume engagement with North Korea, which has virtually cut off all inter-Korean cooperation amid nuclear negotiations with the Trump administration that have stalled over disagreements in exchanging sanctions relief for nuclear disarmament. 

China, North Korea's major ally and economic lifeline, had endorsed the easing of US-led sanctions and pressure to induce denuclearisation steps from the North.

Diplomacy

The two sides discussed topics such as accelerating free-trade agreement negotiations, expanding cultural exchanges as well as the election of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Director General, South Korea's presidential Blue House spokesman Kang Min-seok said in a statement.

Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, met with South Korea's new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan, the South Korean government said.

Kang added that Yang addressed China's position regarding the current US-China relations and Suh in return emphasized the importance of cooperative US-China relations for peace and prosperity in Northeast Asia.


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