Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul will visit China early next week for talks with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, marking the first trip to Beijing by a South Korean diplomat in more than six years, the Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
Cho’s two-day trip to Beijing from Monday to Tuesday comes at a time when South Korea is facing the challenge of mending relations with China, which have soured amid Seoul’s strong orientation toward the US under Yoon Suk Yeol government.
It will be the first visit by a South Korean foreign minister to China since November 2017, when Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha visited during President Moon Jae-in’s administration.
His trip will also come on the eve of an expected trilateral summit between the leaders of South Korea, China and Japan, which Seoul is seeking to use to strengthen trilateral cooperation with its Asian neighbours. The summit is likely to be held on 26-27 May.
Cho will discuss with Wang “issues of mutual interest ranging from bilateral relations, the trilateral summit and the Korean Peninsula to regional and global issues,” the ministry said in a press release.
Cho also plans to meet with South Korean businessmen working in China and discuss ideas and efforts to strengthen bilateral business exchanges with Beijing.
Bilateral relations between Seoul and Beijing deteriorated last year when Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming publicly warned the host country that it would “definitely regret” if it “bet on China’s defeat” in its rivalry with the US.
Xing’s remarks reflect Beijing’s dissatisfaction with Seoul’s rapprochement with Washington, moving away from the previous Moon Jae-in government, which placed great importance on relations with China.
Beijing also reacted angrily to Yoon’s remarks about maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, a highly sensitive issue that China considers its own affair in which other countries have no right to interfere.
South Korea has sought to improve its ties with China, given the strategic need for this largest trading partner and a key player in its diplomacy towards North Korea.
