The new administration in South Korea on Tuesday urged China to help in the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the presidential office in Seoul told Yonhap News.
Seoul urging Beijing to “play a constructive role” in the process came during the first telephonic conversation between Chinese President Xi Jinping and newly elected South Korean President Lee Jae-myung.
Lee assumed office last week after winning the snap presidential polls, triggered by the ousting of Yoon Suk-yeol over his failed bid to impose martial law last December.
Xi told Lee that China “will make efforts to resolve the issue,” according to South Korea's presidential spokeswoman Kang Yu-jung.
“Promoting peace and stability on the peninsula would serve as mutual interests for both South Korea and China,” said Xi.
The Korean Peninsula has remained divided since the 1950s inter-Korean war, and Seoul has repeatedly sought Pyongyang to denuclearize after its first tests in 2006.
Ties between the divided Koreas have remained at an all-time low since South Korea’s ousted President Yoon assumed office in 2022.
Xi and Lee also discussed bilateral ties, trade, and "strategic cooperative partnership.”
China and South Korea should promote their strategic cooperative partnership to a higher level, said Xi.
It was the third phone call between Lee and a foreign leader. He earlier spoke to US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Xi urged Beijing and Seoul to jointly safeguard multilateralism and free trade, to ensure stable and smooth global and regional industrial and supply chains.
He stressed that the two sides should "inject more certainty into regional and international situations."
Lee also invited Xi to South Korea for November's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, the Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.
"China is an important partner to us in all aspects, including the economy and security.
"I hope that the two countries, which are the APEC chair countries this year and next year, will work closely together on the occasion of APEC and build a Korea-China strategic cooperative partnership that can make a real contribution to the lives of the two peoples," Lee said on X.
The South Korean president called for bilateral cooperation with China "based on the spirit of mutual benefits, equality."
Lee and Xi also agreed on "efforts for peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula."
