Korea-China ties irreversible, will continue to expand: envoy

By Byun Duk-kun
SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's top diplomat to China said Wednesday
that the two countries should further upgrade bilateral relations, noting their
ties are growing at a rapid pace in terms of trade and human exchanges.

Ambassador Yu Woo-ik pointed out that economic ties between his country and China
have already surpassed those between Korea and the U.S. and Korea-Japan
relations.
"The amount of bilateral trade between South Korea and China has already
surpassed that of South Korea and the United States and South Korea and Japan,
combined," Yu told reporters here.
Yu is on a brief trip back to his homeland for the annual conference of mission
chiefs here this week, attended by the heads of 117 diplomatic missions abroad. A
former chief of staff to President Lee Myung-bak, Yu took the post in late
December.
In addition to economic cooperation, both China and South Korea send the largest
number of students, about 60,000, to each other's countries, Yu said.
"This has an especially important meaning in that the fact the countries are
exchanging the largest number of young students shows how Korea-China relations
will develop in the future," he said.
"The relationship between the two countries at present is already the largest and
the most intimate of its kind that has never been seen before between any two
countries in the world," the 58-year-old diplomat added.
The envoy also said that such an irreversible expansion of ties between the
countries will eventually lead to their signing of a free trade agreement.
"It will take some time for the countries to review and negotiate a possible deal
though they are continuing to make progress toward that end through a joint
study. We are now discussing ways to move the plan to the next stage after
concluding our joint study within the first half of this year," he told
reporters.
Seoul-Beijing ties were upgraded to a "strategic cooperative partnership" last
year at a bilateral summit between the South Korean president and his Chinese
counterpart Hu Jintao.
Yu said the bilateral relationship must be further enhanced, both in size and
quality, noting the upward trend in ties between the countries will continue in
the future.
The ambassador said that China was also working closely with South Korea in
efforts to resume six-nation talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambition, but
noted it was still too early to forecast the North's return to the negotiations
in the near future.
"As the host of the six-party talks, China continued to take various efforts to
resume the six-party talks since they were suspended. And I believe the country
also worked very actively to produce a joint stance by the five other countries
in the talks and relay that stance to North Korea," Yu said.
The talks, also involving South Korea, the United States, Japan and Russia, were
last held in December 2008. North Korea said in April that it will permanently
quit the nuclear talks, but said in recent days that it may return to the
negotiating table if sanctions imposed by a U.N. Security Council resolution last
year are first removed.
Ambassador Yu noted the visit to Pyongyang this week by Wang Jiarui, head of the
international department of the Chinese Community Party, was part of recent
positive signs for the resumption of the nuclear talks, but said it was not a
definite sign of an imminent resumption.
"What I want to say is that we must closely watch the continuation of positive
signs, weather they are big or small, but that it will be too rash to say when or
how the talks will be resumed," he said.
bdk@yna.co.kr
(END)

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