By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
President Lee Myung-bak visited China's earthquake-devastated Sichuan Province Friday and delivered his condolences to residents there who are suffering from the aftermath of the unprecedented natural disaster.
Lee became the first foreign head of state to visit the earthquake-hit region.
During the visit, President Lee extended Korea's deep, heart-felt sympathy to those killed in the massive earthquake and pledged assistance in the region's rebuilding efforts. Lee returned home last night, after ending a four-day visit to China.
President Lee said that for the first time in history, Korean military airplanes had visited China. ``The unprecedented incident reflects the upgraded relationship between Seoul and Beijing,'' he said according to Yonhap News Agency.
Le added, ``I came here convinced that we always have to share the pleasure and pain of the Chinese people, because China is our closest neighbor and a good neighbor to South Korea.''
An earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale hit the mountainous region in western China May 12. The official death toll neared 70,000 as of Friday, with an additional 19,851 people still missing. The quake has left more than 5 million people homeless.
Lee visited remote earthquake-devastated areas and refugee shelters to give words of encouragement, according to officials accompanying Lee.
During Lee's visit, a Korean military plane arrived in Chengdu Thursday carrying approximately 380 million won ($362,000) worth of relief goods.
The Korean government has already provided about $3 million worth of cash and relief goods to China and dispatched 44 emergency relief workers to the devastated area. An additional $2 million worth of aid will be delivered to China, officials said.
He arrived in Qingdao, a major seaport and industrial center in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong, Thursday, after successfully winding up his visit to Beijing.
In a summit Tuesday, President Lee and Chinese President Hu Jintao agreed to upgrade South Korea-China relations to a ``strategic cooperative partnership.''
Lee flew directly to Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, after inspecting South Korean-invested companies in Qingdao.
He stressed the importance of closer economic and industrial cooperation between the two countries.
The number of South Korean-invested companies operating in Qingdao totaled 4,081 as of the end of 2007, accounting for more than half of all foreign-invested firms there.
``I have long thought about how to enhance the friendship between Korea and China... I have to personally look at the pain sustained by my neighbor China,'' Lee told Korean reporters in Beijing Thursday, explaining the background of his planned visit to Sichuan.
Lee then talked about Korea's diplomatic relations with the four superpowers.
``It is not desirable for Korea to lean toward a South Korea-U.S. alliance, particularly from the perspective of a power balance in Northeast Asia. South Korea-U.S. relations and South Korea-China relations should be complementary to each other," he said.