Todd Bishop
South Korean President Moon Jae-in went to China on December 23 to attend the China-Japan-ROK summit. He arrived in Beijing the same day and met with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Wen Zaiyin held talks with Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. At the meeting, Wen Zaiyin stated that the suspension of the DPRK-US dialogue and the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula are not good for South Korea and China as well as North Korea. Wen Zaiyin stated that he hopes that the two countries can further strengthen cooperation and seize rare opportunities to achieve positive results.
Wen Zaiyin praised China for its important role in promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and the peace process, and invited Xi Jinping to visit Seoul in 2020.
Xi Jinping said that China and South Korea jointly promote regional peace, stability and prosperity, safeguard multilateralism and a free trade system, and have broad consensus in many aspects. The two countries have always been close friends and partners. Xi Jinping emphasized that the world today is facing unprecedented changes in a century, and China and South Korea should deepen and develop strategic partnerships of cooperation and continuously safeguard and expand the common interests of the two countries.
Traveled to Chengdu on the same day to meet Li Keqiang
Wen Zaiyin will later travel to Chengdu to meet with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang in the evening. The two are expected to discuss how to promote economic, trade, environmental and cultural cooperation between the two countries.
The China-Japan-ROK summit talks will be held in Chengdu on the 24th, and Japanese Jayin will also hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This may be an opportunity to improve the deadlock in Japan-ROK relations. The Japanese government said on the 20th that it would relax some export restrictions on South Korea, which was seen as a friendly message to South Korea.
