Korea, China hold first high-level meeting in months

Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Yong-sam, left, meets with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing on Tuesday. [MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS]

Deputy Foreign Minister Choi Yong-sam met with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong in Beijing on Tuesday, marking the first high-level meeting between the two countries in months since relations frayed over several diplomatic disputes.

“They discussed measures taken by the two governments for stable management and development of relations since the inauguration of the new Korean government in May of last year,” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement. “The two sides agreed that meticulous efforts are required to promote bilateral relations based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.”

Choi conveyed Korea’s continued respect for the One China policy, while requesting Beijing’s close cooperation on countering security threats from North Korea, said the Foreign Ministry.

“The two sides agreed on the need for trade promotion and stable supply chain management and agreed to make efforts to expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges for the long-term and future-oriented promotion of bilateral relations,” it added.

Choi and Sun’s meeting comes in the wake of a series of incidents that have chilled relations between Seoul and Beijing.

In an interview with Reuters in April, Presidential Yoon Suk Yeol said Taiwan was "not simply an issue between China and Taiwan.”

His subsequent statement about opposing “attempts to change the status quo [on Taiwan] by force” met with strong opposition from Beijing.

When a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson called Yoon’s comments meddlesome, the Korean government responded by summoning the Chinese ambassador to Seoul.

More recently, the two governments engaged in tit-for-tat summons of each other’s envoys over Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming’s comments during a meeting with the leader of the Democratic Party (DP) in Korea last month.

In the meeting, held at Xing's diplomatic residence in Seoul and live streamed on the DP's YouTube channel, the Chinese ambassador suggested that Korea should not “bet on China’s defeat” in the ongoing U.S.-China rivalry and would "regret" siding with the United States.

While both foreign ministers of Korea and China will be present at the Asean Regional Forum in Indonesia next week, neither government has announced if they will be meeting on the sidelines of the forum.

The last foreign ministerial meeting between Beijing and Korea was in August last year when Foreign Minister Park Jin visited Qingdao for the meeting.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]