By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Chinese President Hu Jintao wishes for an early summit with President-elect Lee Myung-bak in Beijing for talks on ways of expanding ties between the two countries, a Chinese special envoy said Monday.
Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi delivered the message to Lee during a meeting in Seoul.
Wang conveyed Hu's congratulatory message and an invitation for the President-elect to visit Beijing soon. Lee is to be sworn in on Feb. 25.
President-elect Lee expressed gratitude to the Chinese leader for his invitation.
Lee also thanked the Chinese government for cooperating on
the current deadlock over North Korea's refusal to provide a full
declaration of its nuclear program.
Rep. Park Geun-hye of the main opposition Grand National Party also attended the meeting.
Park will visit Beijing as Lee’s special envoy before his inauguration on Feb. 25. Three other envoys of the President-elect will visit the United States, Japan and Russia.
Earlier in the day, Wang met Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Song Min-soon and discussed the North Korean nuclear problem.
Song expressed hope that a new round of six-party talks over North Korea’s nuclear programs will take place before mid-February to help implement a multinational deal to rid the North of nuclear weapons.
``Related nations are in consultations over the nuclear issue,’’ the foreign minister told reporters after a one-hour meeting with Wang at the ministry in Seoul. ``I talked with him about the need for the resumption of the six-party talks in the near future.’’
The six-way talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Japan and Russia have not been held for a month because of a stalemate over Pyongyang’s obligation to declare its nuclear weapons programs.
North Korea missed a Dec. 31 deadline to declare all its nuclear programs under the denuclearization-for-assistance pact signed at a six-party meeting on Feb. 13, 2007.
Under the deal, the North is to receive 1 million tons of heavy fuel oil or its equivalent in aid and other concessions from the five countries in return for disabling its key nuclear facilities and providing a list of its nuclear activities.
But the Stalinist state failed to provide a complete list of its past and current nuclear activities including an alleged uranium-enrichment program.
Pyongyang insists it gave the list to the U.S. government in November, a claim Washington has denied.