Photo : YONHAP News
Anchor: On the last day of his state visit to China, President Lee Jae Myung held a luncheon in Shanghai with the reporters who accompanied him on his trip. He told them he’d asked Chinese President Xi Jinping to act as a mediator on matters pertaining to the Korea Peninsula, including the North Korean nuclear issue. Lee wrapped up his trip with a visit to the historic site of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.
Report: On Wednesday, the last day of his four-day state visit to China, President Lee Jae Myung held a surprise luncheon with the presidential press corps in Shanghai.
The South Korean leader told them he’d asked Beijing to mediate for peace between the two Koreas as all channels of communication between Seoul and Pyongyang are currently deadlocked.
Lee also told reporters the government will manage South Korea-China ties so they won’t be affected by emotions.
He said he believes he made much more progress than expected during his state visit, adding that ways to smoothly address sensitive issues were found.
On China’s ban on Korean cultural content, Lee said he believes it will be eased gradually in a methodical, step-by-step manner.
The president also talked about the Chinese steel structures in the Yellow Sea.
He said China has agreed to remove one of the three structures from the South Korea-China Provisional Measures Zone, or PMZ, an area of the Yellow Sea where the two countries’ exclusive economic zones overlap.
Lee said China agreed to remove a facility it built in 2022 to manage its two fish farms in the PMZ.
He said that while the management facility had not crossed into South Korean waters, it had entered the Chinese side of the PMZ.
The president said he’d proposed drawing a clear line in the middle of the PMZ and holding working-level talks on the matter to eliminate room for any future disputes.
Lee wrapped up his trip to China with a visit to the site of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, where he paid tribute to independence activists such as Kim Koo ahead of the 150th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of the founding of the provisional government during Japan’s colonial rule.
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.