By Kim Rahn
President Moon Jae-in will depart for China, Dec. 13, for a four-day state visit, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
It will be Moon's second state visit since his inauguration, May 10, following the first one to Indonesia.
"Moon will visit China at Chinese President Xi Jinping's invitation," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
In Beijing, Moon will have a summit with Xi, a state dinner, and meetings with other ranking officials of the country including Prime Minister Li Keqiang. The bilateral talks with Xi will come about a month after their previous meeting which took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam, Nov. 11.
"Through the meetings, Moon, Xi and the Chinese officials will review the 25-year-old diplomatic relationship between the two countries and discuss ways to develop it," Park said. "They will also talk about how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula."
The relations between the two countries had turned sour after Beijing protested Seoul's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and took unofficial economic retaliation against South Korean businesses.
The two governments made an agreement Oct. 31 to move forward by ending the diplomatic row over THAAD.
However, pundits note that the THAAD issue could re-emerge at anytime as China wants the removal of the system while South Korea says it is necessary to deter North Korea's missile threats.
Regarding the North Korea issue, Moon is expected to call on China, almost the North's only ally, to take more actions to stop Pyongyang's missile and nuclear provocations and urge it to come forward for negotiations. Pyongyang launched another intercontinental ballistic missile Nov. 29, which is believed to be capable of carrying a heavy warhead and striking anywhere on the U.S. mainland.
After a two-day stay in Beijing, Moon will head for Chongqing, Dec. 15, which is a key region in the "One Road, One Belt" initiative which seeks to link China with Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe. Chongqing is also where Korea's provisional government was located from 1940 to 1945, when the peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945).
"Moon's visit will be an opportunity to recover the two nations' exchanges and cooperation, an opportunity for another 25 years of relations," Park said.
A large number of businesspeople are likely to accompany the President out of high expectations for the normalization of business activities in China which have been troubled because of the THAAD row.
Many CEO- or chairperson-level officials are expected to participate in the tour, considering that it will be the first trip to China by businesspeople on the occasion of a president's visit since September 2015, and that Moon will visit the country as a state guest.
President Moon Jae-in will depart for China, Dec. 13, for a four-day state visit, Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
It will be Moon's second state visit since his inauguration, May 10, following the first one to Indonesia.
"Moon will visit China at Chinese President Xi Jinping's invitation," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.
In Beijing, Moon will have a summit with Xi, a state dinner, and meetings with other ranking officials of the country including Prime Minister Li Keqiang. The bilateral talks with Xi will come about a month after their previous meeting which took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Danang, Vietnam, Nov. 11.
"Through the meetings, Moon, Xi and the Chinese officials will review the 25-year-old diplomatic relationship between the two countries and discuss ways to develop it," Park said. "They will also talk about how to deal with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula."
The relations between the two countries had turned sour after Beijing protested Seoul's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery and took unofficial economic retaliation against South Korean businesses.
The two governments made an agreement Oct. 31 to move forward by ending the diplomatic row over THAAD.
However, pundits note that the THAAD issue could re-emerge at anytime as China wants the removal of the system while South Korea says it is necessary to deter North Korea's missile threats.
Regarding the North Korea issue, Moon is expected to call on China, almost the North's only ally, to take more actions to stop Pyongyang's missile and nuclear provocations and urge it to come forward for negotiations. Pyongyang launched another intercontinental ballistic missile Nov. 29, which is believed to be capable of carrying a heavy warhead and striking anywhere on the U.S. mainland.
After a two-day stay in Beijing, Moon will head for Chongqing, Dec. 15, which is a key region in the "One Road, One Belt" initiative which seeks to link China with Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Europe. Chongqing is also where Korea's provisional government was located from 1940 to 1945, when the peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945).
"Moon's visit will be an opportunity to recover the two nations' exchanges and cooperation, an opportunity for another 25 years of relations," Park said.
A large number of businesspeople are likely to accompany the President out of high expectations for the normalization of business activities in China which have been troubled because of the THAAD row.
Many CEO- or chairperson-level officials are expected to participate in the tour, considering that it will be the first trip to China by businesspeople on the occasion of a president's visit since September 2015, and that Moon will visit the country as a state guest.
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