Chinese FM Meets South Korean Counterpart

Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan met his South Korean counterpart Lee Joung-binn Wednesday in Bangkok, and exchanged views with him on the bilateral relations between the two countries and other issues of common interest.

Tang, who has just finished his official visit to India and Pakistan, arrived here Wednesday to attend a series of ASEAN meetings.

During his meeting with Lee, Tang expressed his hopes that the two sides of the Korean peninsula, on the basis of the inter- Korean summit in June, will make joint efforts to conscientiously implement agreements reached thereby and continuously improve and develop their inter-Korean relations Tang spoke highly of the results achieved at the inter-Korean summit, saying it is undoubtedly in the fundamental interest of the all the people in the Korean peninsula, and is beneficial to the peace and stability of the northeastern Asian region.

The Chinese foreign minister welcome DPRK's first ever participation in the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Lee said that South Korea is happy that DPRK has dispatched a delegation to attend the ARF meeting, believing this will be helpful to reconciliation and cooperation of the peninsula.

Tang said he is satisfied with the developments of the Sino- South Korean relations in the past eight years since they established diplomatic ties, expressing willingness to strengthen their bilateral cooperation and promote the relations to higher levels continuously.

Chinese Ambassador Fu Xuezhang, Assistant to the Foreign Minister Wang Yi, and others are present at the meeting which lasted for more than an hour.

ARF, which initiated in 1993, comprising 10 ASEAN members, one observer Paupa New Guinea and 10 ASEAN dialogue partners, Mongolia and DPRK, serves as a multilateral consultative forum aimed at promoting preventive diplomacy and confidence building among the nations in the region.

The 7th ARF, to be held on July 27, will see DPRK's first attendance to the forum.



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