President Park Geun-hye and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang called for strengthening relations between China and Korea as they met on the sidelines on Saturday before the trilateral summit with Japan, Sunday.
Park said the meeting, the latest in a series of talks she has held with top Chinese leaders, could contribute to the development of good relations, peace and stability in Northeast Asia.
In September, she met with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and attended China's massive military parade, making a symbolic gesture of the close ties between the two countries.
Li told Park at the start of the talks that China wants to bolster bilateral ties and push for regional peace and stability by strengthening trilateral cooperation.
Park and Li are set to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the trilateral summit on Sunday in Seoul, the first such meeting among the neighbors in more than three years.
A trilateral summit has not been held between the three nations since 2012 due to a territorial dispute between China and Japan, as well as Japan's attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities and colonial occupation.
Japan ruled the Korean Peninsula as a colony from 1910-45 and controlled much of China in the early part of the 20th century.
Li also plans to meet with South Korean Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and parliamentary speaker Chung Ui-hwa during his three-day visit.
On Monday, Park is set to hold talks with Abe _ the first bilateral summit between the leaders of Japan and Korea in more than three years.