MOON CHARMS CHINA WITH K-POP, TV STARS
S. Korea wants to smooth tensions caused by North
SEOUL
PRESIDENT Moon Jae-in unveiled an array of television talent and K-Pop celebrities at events, including a state dinner, in China yesterday as he attempts to smooth out a year of difficult diplomacy with a star-laden charm offensive.
South Korean celebrities, including those accompanying Moon, had been shut out of Chinese television and concert halls as relations cooled between the neighbours as they faced the threat posed by North Korea’s missile and nuclear programmes.
The thorniest issue was South Korea’s deployment of a controversial United States anti-missile system.
Moon hopes to use his first visit to China since taking office in May to build support for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has steadily grown through the year.
He kicked off his trip to China on Wednesday, and spoke of the need to get bilateral economic exchanges back on track.
“It is the confidence of South Koreans and business leaders that the difficult situation of inadequacies of cooperation between the two countries, borne out of differences in the two countries’ point of view, will be shaken off — and a new age of bilateral relations will begin,” Moon said in Beijing.
He signed a memorandum with Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday in a step towards follow-up negotiations about services and investments under the South Korea-China Free Trade Agreement.
South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo, star of hit drama Descendants of the Sun and the face of many South Korean cosmetics brands, joined Moon and Xi in a state dinner yesterday. Song was joined by married South Korean and Chinese actors Choo Ja-yeon and Xiaoguang Yu.
The presence of such celebrities reflects Seoul’s hope to break the ice after a furious row over its deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence anti-missile system.
China said the system’s powerful radar could see far into its territory and did nothing to ease tensions with the North. Reuters South Korean President Moon Jae-in and Chinese President Xi Jinping shaking hands at the end of a signing ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing yesterday.