By Kim Young-jin
A delegation of high-level Chinese officials arrived in Seoul Tuesday in the first such visits since the confirmation of Xi Jinping as China’s next president.
Diplomatic sources said the officials would exchange views on bilateral relations under the new leadership with Seoul counterparts on the three-day trip.
The delegation is led by Chen Baosheng, vice president of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Party School. He is slated to meet vice foreign minister Ahn Ho-young and other officials.
Xi secured the top posts of the Chinese Communist Party and its military last week during a party congress. He is expected to succeed Chinese President Hu Jintao in March.
Despite skyrocketing trade, a number of tricky issues remain between the sides, from Beijing’s treatment of South Korean detainees and its repatriation of North Korean defectors to disagreement over maritime boundaries in the surrounding waters.
Seoul’s diplomats, however, are privately optimistic about the new generation of leaders lead by Xi, saying they have a deep understanding of South as well as North Korea.
Such optimism is cautious, however, as analysts do not expect Beijing to make a major shift regarding Pyongyang, which it has shielded from international censure for its provocations.
The candidates in the Dec. 19 presidential election ― Park Geun-hye, Ahn Cheol-soo and Moon Jae-in ― all pledge to establish a more strategic positioning between the United States and China after the Lee Myung-bak administration leaned heavily toward Washington.