Seoul faces balancing act as China ties develop
South Korea makes most of Beijing's impatience with North and shared anger at Japan, but US position in region will affect how ties develop
Senior officials from China and South Korea will hold talks over the coming days to boost their cooperation on regional security, following a landmark visit to Seoul by President Xi Jinping.
The exchanges of South Korean Deputy Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo and Second Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Tae-yul with their Chinese counterparts illustrate that while the two nations are upbeat about their bilateral ties, they face complications amid strengthening US-South Korean military ties and uncertainty over North Korea.
Baek is due in China on Tuesday for strategic defence talks with PLA deputy chief of general staff Wang Guanzhong as part of a three-nation tour.
Cho will arrive in Beijing tomorrow for a two-day visit, during which he is expected to ask China to send senior officials to a forum hosted by South Korea in October on regional peace and cooperation.
The visits of Baek and Cho come soon after Xi held talks with South Korean President Park Geun-hye in Seoul early this month.
Xi's visit indicated Beijing was shifting its attention from North Korea to the South as the Chinese president broke a tradition of his predecessors by not visiting Pyongyang first on an official visit to the Korean peninsula.