Moon highlights South Korea-China ties in visit to site of independence movement
CHONGQING, China: South Korean President Moon JaeIn visited the former office of his country’s provisional government in Chongqing yesterday, highlighting the long history of friendship between South Korea and China, and their joint struggle against Japan’s past imperialism, Yonhap news agency reported.
The visit to the office of the provisional government marked the first of its kind by a South Korean president, according to the South Korean presidential office Cheong Wa Dae.
The provisional government operated in China during the 1910-45 Japanese colonial rule of Korea. The South Korean leader arrived here late Friday as part of his four-day state visit that earlier took him to Beijing.
His trip was largely aimed at holding a bilateral summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the third of its kind since Moon took office in May.
However, the trip also followed months of dispute between the two countries over the deployment of the THAAD US missile defence system in South Korea.
Seoul and Beijing agreed to put their bilateral relationship back on the “normal track” in a joint statement issued Oct 31.
Still, many believe China has yet to fully repair the bilateral ties with many of its apparent economic retaliations against South Korea and its goods still in place.
Chongqing has apparently been picked as the second and last destination in Moon’s four-day China trip as it is home to the business operations of hundreds of South Korean firms believed to have suffered from the months of Chinese retaliation.
Xi acknowledged a recent setback in the South KoreaChina relations in his bilateral summit with Moon on Thursday.
“China-South Korea relations experienced a setback due to the reason we all know. I am confident the president’s visit will be an important opportunity for us to improve our relationship by paving a better way based on mutual respect and trust,” he told Moon.
Meanwhile, Moon called for a ‘new start.’
“I believe that trust is most important not only in a relationship between persons but also between countries. I wish to solidify the foundation for a new era in the relationship between the two countries based on trust and friendship between us two leaders,” the South Korean leader said. — Bernama