Korean, Chinese foreign ministers to meet Monday: Diplomatic source

South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul speaks during a ″two plus two″ meeting between the foreign and defense ministers of South Korea and Australia in Melbourne on May 1, 2024. [YONHAP]

South Korean and Chinese diplomatic officials are finalizing the schedule and agenda for South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul’s visit to China, according to the Korean Embassy in Beijing on Monday.

“Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi invited Cho to visit China as soon as possible at a mutually convenient time during a phone call between the foreign ministers of China and Korea,” a senior embassy official from Beijing told Korean correspondents on Monday. “The two countries have been discussing the specific schedule and agenda for our foreign minister’s visit and are currently in the final stage of coordinating the visit.”

The official from the Korean embassy in Beijing added that this would be the first time a Korean Foreign Minister had visited China since November 2017, when former Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-Hwa visited.

A diplomatic source told the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily, that the meeting will be scheduled around next Monday.

“We are preparing to closely cooperate on issues of mutual interest, such as the direction of development of South Korea-China relations, early attempts at high-level exchanges, supply chain cooperation and the North Korean nuclear issue,” the official added.

Wang Yi, the director of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee Foreign Affairs Commission Office, had previously invited Cho to China for a meeting on Feb. 6. At the time, Cho expressed appreciation for the invitation and replied that discussion through diplomatic channels would be made.

While Cho’s visit to China is being finalized, Beijing has recently forcibly repatriated dozens of North Korean defectors back to Pyongyang, raising criticism that China is trying to “tame” South Korea, knowing that Seoul was unlikely to protest and potentially cause diplomatic problems ahead of a big event such as the Foreign Minister’s visit.

Multiple North Korean human rights organizations previously told the JoongAng Ilbo that at least 61 North Korean defectors who were imprisoned in border regions between China and North Korea were forcibly repatriated.

China forcibly repatriated hundreds of North Korean defectors immediately after the Hangzhou Asian Games in October last year. Despite protests from the South Korean government at the time, China has continued to repatriate defectors forcibly.

The South Korean government appears to be taking a “low-key” approach to the issue, with the National Intelligence Service only stating that it has been “continuously tracking the possibility of forced repatriation of North Korean defectors” and the Unification Ministry reiterating its previous position that it has "nothing to confirm further.”

Seoul may be emphasizing managing relations with China ahead of Cho’s visit, observers contend.

However, the forced repatriation issue will inevitably arise once the foreign ministers of South Korea and China meet.

The South Korean government’s position is that Cho’s visit to China is separate from the South Korea-China-Japan trilateral summit at the end of this month and aims at strengthening bilateral relations.

While Yoon Suk Yeol government has been consistently criticized for allegedly neglecting relations with China compared to those with the United States and Japan, the government has seemingly tried to bolster ties with its giant neighbor since last month's general election.

BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]