Chinese FM Wang Yi to Visit S. Korea on 19th; N. Korea Nukes on Agenda

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit South Korea on May 19-20 for a two-day, one-night schedule to hold talks with Foreign Minister Cho Hyun and discuss major pending issues, including North Korea's nuclear program. Wang's visit for the foreign ministers' talks marks the first such meeting in about five years. Key agenda items include cooperation measures and solutions to the North Korean nuclear issue. Minister Wang is also coordinating a schedule to pay a courtesy call on President Lee and meet with Unification Minister Minister Dong-young Jung. This is the first visit by a high-level Chinese diplomatic and security official to South Korea since President Lee Jae-myung's visit to China in January.

The visit comes amid recent active high-level exchanges between North Korea and China. As 'Korean Peninsula denuclearization' was not mentioned in the North Korea-China summit last June, this visit to South Korea is interpreted as an attempt to rebalance the diplomatic weight, which had been tilted toward Pyongyang, back to Seoul. The government plans to demand that China play a concrete role in enforcing sanctions against North Korea and facilitating a return to dialogue, beyond simply stating general positions.

The talks are expected to discuss economic and cultural cooperation measures to implement the agreements from the January summit.