South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Monday that he wants to open a “new phase” for relations with China, after meeting with President Xi Jinping during Lee’s first trip to Beijing since taking office in June.
“This summit will be an important opportunity to make 2026 the first year of full-scale restoration of Korea-China relations,” Lee said. “I believe that efforts to develop the strategic cooperation and partnership between the two countries into an irreversible trend of the times will continue.”
It was Lee’s second meeting with Xi in just two months, a sign of Beijing’s keen interest in increasing economic collaboration and tourism with Seoul as China’s relations with Northeast Asia’s other big economy, Japan, have reached the lowest point in years in a dispute over policy toward Taiwan.
In comments reported by Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, Xi made an unusually direct reference to the shared Chinese and Korean experience of resisting Japan during World War II.
“More than 80 years ago, China and South Korea made tremendous national sacrifices and won the victory against Japanese militarism,” Xi told Lee.
The two countries should “safeguard peace and stability in Northeast Asia,” Xi added.
Hours before the visit, North Korea launched at least two ballistic missiles, its first such launches in two months. Leader Kim Jong Un cited the need for Pyongyang to maintain a powerful nuclear deterrent.
South Korea and China “affirmed the importance of resuming dialogue with North Korea and agreed to continue exploring creative ways to reduce tensions and build peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Wi Sung-lac, Lee’s security adviser, told a news briefing after Lee’s meeting with Xi.
Lee, elected in a snap election in June, has promised to strengthen ties with the United States without antagonizing China, while seeking to reduce tensions with the North.
Beijing, for its part, has been seeking stronger ties with Seoul since a rupture with Japan, whose Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that Tokyo could take military action if Beijing attacked Taiwan.
Xi, citing an “increasingly chaotic and complicated international situation,” said China and South Korea should make “correct strategic choices.”
The two countries “should look after each other’s core interests and major concerns, and insist on properly resolving differences through dialogue and consultation,” Xi told Lee.
Seok Byoung-hoon, a professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, said Xi’s comments suggested that China wants Seoul to side with Beijing rather than Washington over cross-Strait relations with Taiwan, and respect Beijing’s position regarding the U.S. seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.
The two countries signed 15 agreements at the summit, according to South Korean and Chinese broadcasters, including documents on technology, intellectual property and transportation cooperation.
Chinese and South Korean companies also signed nine cooperation agreements, South Korea’s Trade Ministry said, naming Alibaba International, Lenovo and South Korean retailer Shinsegae.
Lee arrived for his four-day state visit on Sunday, along with a delegation of more than 200 South Korean business leaders.
South Korea and China need to expand economic cooperation in artificial intelligence, Lee said, and could also collaborate in consumer goods such as household goods, beauty, food products and cultural content such as movies, music, games and sports.
However, South Korean Presidential Chief of Staff Kang Hoon-sik said in a radio interview Monday that Beijing was unlikely to lift an unofficial ban on Korean culture any time soon.
After a state banquet at the Great Hall of the People, Lee snapped a selfie of the presidential couples, featuring a smiling Xi, using a Chinese-made Xiaomi smartphone.
Xi gave Lee the phone during a state visit to South Korea late last year, when the Chinese president jokingly urged Lee to “check if there’s a backdoor.”
“The image quality is certainly good, right?” Lee said in a social media post with a beaming face emoji.
“Thanks to you, I got the picture of a lifetime haha,” he added.
