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South Korean President Lee Jae Myung met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping connected Monday (January 5, 2026) successful Beijing, with person economical ties arsenic good arsenic the recalcitrant North connected the agenda.
Mr. Lee is the archetypal South Korean person to sojourn Beijing successful six years and his gathering with Mr. Xi comes a time aft the nuclear-armed North fired 2 ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan.
Mr. Xi held a invited ceremonial for Mr. Lee and the 2 began talks, Chinese authorities broadcaster CCTV said.
The signing of an statement and a authorities banquet volition follow, Seoul has said.
The South Korean leader, accompanied by a delegation of concern and tech leaders, hopes to unafraid pledges to grow economical practice with his country's largest trading partner.
He has called for South Korea and China to enactment towards "more horizontal and mutually beneficial" trade.
On Monday (January 5, 2026), Mr. Lee besides met with apical executives from some South Korean and Chinese firms astatine Beijing's opulent Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, Seoul's Yonhap quality bureau reported.
South Korea and China "have helped each different turn done interconnected concern proviso chains and led the planetary economy", helium told them.
Among the Chinese firms represented were artillery elephantine CATL arsenic good arsenic telephone shaper ZTE and tech elephantine Tencent, Yonhap said.
On the South Korean side, Mr. Lee was accompanied by Samsung Electronics president Lee Jae-yong and Hyundai Motor Group's enforcement seat Chung Eui-sun, among others.
Mr. Lee besides hopes to perchance harness China's clout implicit North Korea to enactment his bid to amended ties with Pyongyang.
"China is simply a precise important cooperative spouse successful moving toward bid and unification connected the Korean Peninsula," Mr. Lee said during a gathering with Korean residents successful Beijing connected Sunday, according to Yonhap.
Pyongyang tensions
Hours earlier Mr. Xi and Mr. Lee were owed to meet, Pyongyang declared that it had launched 2 hypersonic missiles and that its atomic forces were acceptable for "actual war".
Mr. Xi and Mr. Lee past met successful November connected the sidelines of the APEC acme successful the South Korean metropolis of Gyeongju — a gathering Seoul framed arsenic a reset of ties aft years of tension.
Seoul has for decades trodden a good enactment betwixt China, its apical trading partner, and the United States, its main defence guarantor.
And Mr. Lee's travel comes little than a week aft China carried retired monolithic subject drills astir Taiwan, the self-ruled land it claims arsenic portion of its territory.
The exercise, featuring missiles, combatant jets, navy ships and coastguard vessels, drew a chorus of planetary condemnation that Seoul has notably declined to join.
Mr. Lee besides deftly stayed connected the sidelines since a nasty spat erupted betwixt Beijing and Tokyo precocious past year, triggered by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's proposition that Japan could intervene militarily if China attacks Taiwan.
In an interrogation with Chinese authorities broadcaster CCTV connected Friday (January 2, 2026), Mr. Lee said helium "clearly affirms" that "respecting the 'one-China' rule and maintaining bid and stableness successful Northeast Asia, including successful the Taiwan Strait, are precise important".
