Abe, Moon land for talks in Chengdu
Trilateral meet held to discuss N Korea
BEIJING: The leaders of South Korea and China said yesterday that they look forward to improved ties following a protracted disagreement over the deployment of a US anti-missile system that Beijing considers a threat.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in told Chinese leader Xi Jinping that while the sides may have felt “disappointed toward each other for a while”, their shared culture and history prevented them from becoming completely estranged.
“It is hoped that South Korea’s dream becomes helpful for China as China’s dream becomes an opportunity for South Korea,” Mr Moon said in opening remarks before reporters were ushered from the room.
In his opening comments at the meeting at the Great Hall of the People in the centre of Beijing, Mr Xi described bilateral ties as “a substantial relationship in the world and an influential relationship among world nations”.
Ties between the northeast- ern neighbours nosedived in 2017 after Seoul accepted the emplacement of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in southern South Korea. Beijing insists its real purpose is to use its powerful radars to peer deep into its territory, rather than to warn of North Korean missile launches and shoot them down.
Furious at being snubbed, China launched an unofficial boycott of everything from Chinese tour group visits to South Korea to South Korean television shows, boy bands and other cultural products. Major South Korean retailer Lotte, which provided a golf course where the missile system was deployed, was singled out for especially harsh treatment and its China business operations were essentially destroyed. Even sales of ubiquitous South Korean auto brands such as Hyundai and Kia plunged for months.
Ultimately, Beijing was unable to force South Korea to withdraw the system and its fury appears to have subsided somewhat amid the trade war with the US and tensions elsewhere in
Asia. South Korea now hopes to have Mr Xi visit next year and is also anxious to have Beijing use its influence with North Korea to give a jolt to deadlocked denuclearisation talks.
While South Korea appreciates the part China has played in that effort, the “current recent situations in which the talks between the United States and North Korea are stalled and tensions on the Korean Peninsula have become heightened are certainly not favourable, not only for South Korea and China but also for North Korea”, Mr Moon said.
“I hope that we continue to closely cooperate so that the opportunities we have gained with difficulty can come to fruition,” he said.
Along with meeting Mr Xi, Mr Moon is to take part today in a trilateral summit in the southwestern city of Chengdu with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier
Li Keqiang.
On the fringes of the trilateral meeting, Mr Abe is said to be planning to meet with Mr Moon, after about 15 months of no formal talks due to the worsening of ties triggered by the issue of compensation for wartime labour.
The Japanese leader will likely raise the unresolved issue of Japanese nationals abducted by Pyongyang in the 1970s and 1980s, according to Japanese officials.