1. On May 23, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se hosted a luncheon for Liu Qibao, head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), who was on a visit to the Republic of Korea at the invitation of the ROK government. On the occasion, the two sides exchanged views on the ROK-China relations and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

2. Minister Yun and Chinese official Liu noted with appreciation that over the past three years since the launches of their incumbent governments, the ROK and China have seen more advances than ever before in their bilateral relations in various fields, including through robust exchanges at the summit and other high levels, the entry of the bilateral FTA into force, and close humanities exchanges. The two ranking officials agreed to work together for the bilateral ties to take another leap on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of diplomatic relations in 2017.

° The two sides took note of the success of the eighth ROK-China Forum for Senior Journalists, which had taken place during head Liu’s visit to the ROK, and agreed on the need to vitalize a variety of media exchange programs between the two countries.

° The two sides, bringing renewed attention to the fact that the number of Korean and Chinese visitors to each other’s countries reached a combined 10 million in 2014, agreed to work together to increase people-to-people exchanges in the “Korea Tourism Year (2016),” which follows the “China Tourism Year (2015).”

° Given that the two countries are both actively implementing policies aimed at cultural enrichment, becoming cultural powerhouses and others for cultural promotion, the two sides agreed to step up bilateral cooperation in the cultural industry.

3. The two sides shared with each other their assessments of the situation on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the seventh Congress of the Workers’ Party of North Korea. The two ranking officials, sharing the view that it is important to thoroughly implement UN Security Council Resolution 2270 in the current situation, agreed to further step up communication and strategic coordination on North Korea and its nuclear issue.


* unofficial translation