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| President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol shakes hands with Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming at the People Power Party headquarters in Seoul, March 11. Yonhap |
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol said Friday he is certain South Korea-China relations will develop further during a meeting with Beijing's top envoy to Seoul.
Yoon made the remark in the meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Seoul Xing Haiming two days after his election, noting China is South Korea's largest trading partner and South Korea is China's third-largest.
"I'm certain South Korea-China relations will develop further," he said at the People Power Party headquarters, recalling this year marks 30 years since the two countries' establishment of diplomatic ties. "The establishment of diplomatic relations was of great help to our two countries' people in many ways. It also helped economic development."
In a congratulatory message read by Xing, Chinese President Xi Jinping mentioned the importance of the anniversary and called South Korea a "close neighbor and important cooperation partner."
"Together with the South Korean side, the Chinese side is willing to firmly defend the original intentions of our establishment of diplomatic ties and deepen our friendly cooperation to promote the stable and long-term development of the China-South Korea strategic cooperative partnership relationship and bring welfare to the two nations and our peoples," Xi said.
The ambassador added he has served as a diplomat four times in South Korea and twice in North Korea, making him "inseparable" from the South.
"I am willing to work with good intentions," he said.
Yoon was elected on a platform of deepening South Korea's alliance with the United States and "retooling" ties with China.
During the presidential campaign, he said "most South Koreans, especially young people, do not like China" despite the outgoing Moon Jae-in administration's pro-China policies.
"Chinese people don't like our people very much, either," he said at the time. (Yonhap)
