NewChina foreign minister visits Seoul with eye on North's nuclear threat
Two sides set to finalise agenda for planned Xi-Park meeting to discuss Pyongyang's 'provocations'
China’s foreign minister today visited South Korea, where he is expected to finalise preparations for a meeting between President Xi Jinping and the South’s leader to stave off threats of a new North Korean missile test.
The South Korean government wishes to hold the meeting, possibly next month, between Xi and Park Gyeun-hye to send a signal to Pyongyang that a fourth nuclear weapons test this year would not be tolerated, the Yonhap News Agency reported yesterday.
Foreign minister Wang Yi, invited by counterpart Yun Byung-se, will be in the country for two days – his first South Korean trip since taking up the post in March last year.
They will finalise the agenda for the meeting between Xi and Park, Yonhap said. Wang and Yun are scheduled to meet this afternoon at the foreign ministry in Seoul.
Wang will meet Park and join activities at the Chinese embassy before returning to Beijing tomorrow afternoon.
China is North Korea’s only major ally and biggest trading partner, and as such exercises some influence on the wayward North.