GYEONGJU, South Korea, Nov 1 – South Korean President Lee Jae Myung on Saturday called for stronger “strategic communication” with China to work toward the resumption of dialogue with North Korea as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Gyeongju, the South Korean presidential office said.
At the outset of their talks, Xi said Beijing is ready to deepen cooperation with Seoul so the two Asian neighbors can put “positive energy into regional peace and development,” Lee’s office said.
Lee, who hopes to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula, emphasized China’s role in bringing North Korea back to table for talks, given Beijing’s recent improvement in ties with Pyongyang through high-level exchanges.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visited the Chinese capital in September and held his first meeting with Xi in over six years. In October, Chinese Premier Li Qiang traveled to Pyongyang and met with Kim.
“We view positively the recent increase in high-level exchanges between China and North Korea, as they create favorable conditions for broader engagement with Pyongyang,” Lee said, expressing hope that South Korea and China will “make the most of these conditions” to help restart dialogue with the North.
The meeting between Xi, who is on his first state visit to South Korea in 11 years, and Lee was held after the two-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit ended. China will host next year’s APEC summit in the southern city of Shenzhen, he said earlier in the day.
The South Korean leader, who took office in June, also called for advancing partnership with China to “a more mature stage” after bilateral ties deteriorated under his conservative predecessor Yoon Suk Yeol, who pursued a pro-U.S. policy.
Xi told Lee that China and South Korea are “important neighbors that cannot be moved apart” and “inseparable cooperation partners,” China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.
The Chinese leader also called for stronger bilateral communication to boost trust and urged the two sides to “properly manage differences” through consultations, according to the news agency.
On the economic front, Xi sought to speed up negotiations for upgrading the China-South Korea free trade agreement and cooperation in key sectors such as artificial intelligence and biopharmaceuticals, the news agency said. However, the Xinhua report did not touch on North Korea.
Ahead of the Xi-Lee meeting, North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Ho said in a statement issued Friday that denuclearization is a “pipedream” that can “never be realized,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.
South Korea’s attempt to deny North Korea’s position as a nuclear weapons state and seeking its denuclearization reveals its “lack of common sense,” according to the statement carried by KCNA on Saturday.
