China's Hu arrives for South Korea summit

Monday, 25 August 2008

SEOUL - Fresh from hosting a 17-day Olympic spectacular, Chinese President Hu Jintao arrived in South Korea on Monday for talks set to focus on trade and North Korea's nuclear disarmament.

South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak will seek Hu's help at a summit later Monday in easing tense inter-Korean relations and persuading the North to make progress on scrapping its nuclear weapons, Seoul presidential officials say.

The two leaders, meeting for the third time since Lee took office in February, will also discuss plans to broaden their relationship beyond economic issues and will sign a variety of cooperation deals.

"His South Korean trip due the very day after the closing of the Beijing Olympics will demonstrate ever-closer bilateral relations," presidential spokesman Lee Dong-Kwan said.

China is a longstanding ally and crucial donor of food and fuel to the impoverished North.

Inter-Korean relations are at their lowest ebb for a decade after Lee took office and promised to take a firmer line with the North. Official contacts have been cut off.

Six-nation nuclear negotiations chaired by China and including the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan have also hit a snag.

As part of a deal reached last year the North has handed over details of its plutonium-based nuclear programme, but cannot agree with the United States on ways to verify it.

The dispute is delaying efforts to move on to the final phase of the deal, under which the North is supposed to dismantle its atomic plants and hand over all nuclear weapons and material.

At their first summit in Beijing in late May, Lee and Hu agreed to upgrade relations to form a "strategic cooperative partnership." They also met on August 9 in Beijing after Lee attended the opening of the Olympics.

China is South Korea's largest trade partner with total trade worth more than US$145 billion last year.

Seoul had invested a total of US$22.54 billion in China as of the end of last year, and the two sides are studying a possible free trade agreement.

Seoul officials say Monday's meeting will aim to broaden ties into non-economic sectors.

Lee and Hu will witness the signing of memorandums on closer cooperation in energy conservation, the prevention of desertification, trade information networking, technology, food safety and education.

"Yellow dust," originating in China's Gobi Desert and coated with pollutants en route, is a frequent springtime irritant in South Korea, which has sent volunteers to plant trees in the desert.

North Korean defectors meanwhile said they would rally in central Seoul to protest at China's policy of repatriating North Korean refugees as economic migrants.

International rights groups have criticised the policy, noting that the refugees often face harsh punishment on their return.

"China has become a country that garners international attention, and we hope it would now make improvements in human rights as well, particularly the rights of North Korean defectors, to suit its status," said Pastor Kim Kyu-Ho, whose groups is organising the rally.

About 100 defectors and rights activists will gather for the protest, Kim told Yonhap news agency.

South Korea is laying on a full ceremonial welcome, including a 21-gun salute and a state banquet, for Hu.

He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Han Seung-Soo and attend a lunch hosted by economic organisations Tuesday before heading for Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.