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S. Korea's New President Signals Tilt toward China
By Reuters | 24 Aug, 2025

As Lee Jae Myung prepares to cope with Trump's tariff offensive, he seeks to normalize ties with China which is already a more important trading partner than the US.

Printed Chinese and South Korean flags are seen in this illustration, July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

South Korea is hoping to normalise relations with China that have been strained in recent years, the leader of a high-level delegation from Seoul said during a visit to Beijing on Sunday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung sent the envoys to his country's main trading partner as he travels to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump. 

Former assembly speaker Park Byeong-seug, the head of the delegation, met Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and handed over a letter from Lee to Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Diplomatic ties between the two countries have improved since a 2017 dispute over South Korea's deployment of a U.S. missile defence system, which Beijing opposed. 

But they exchanged harsh words in 2023 about critical comments on Beijing by South Korea's last president, Yoon Suk Yeol.

Park told Wang Yi on Sunday he hoped the delegation would "open the door to normalising South Korea-China relations, which have been strained in recent years," Yonhap said.

(Reporting by Ju-min Park; Editing by Andrew Heavens)