Cho Hyun to meet with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi this week…including discussion of Xi Jinping's APEC visit to Korea

Foreign Minister Cho Hyun will visit China for the first time since taking office to discuss bilateral issues.

According to diplomatic circles on the 14th, Minister Cho is expected to visit Beijing around the 17th to meet Wang Yi, director of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Foreign Affairs Office and foreign minister, and others to discuss various Korea-China issues.

If a Korea-China foreign ministers' meeting is held, it is expected that priority will be given to discussing Chinese President Xi Jinping's planned visit to Korea on the occasion of next month's Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Gyeongju.

China has not yet given a definite answer, but President Xi is likely to attend.

The North Korea issue is also expected to be a major topic of discussion.

At the North Korea-China summit earlier this month held on the occasion of China's Victory Day, there was no mention of denuclearization, raising concerns that China's stance of "refusal of North Korean nuclear weapons" may have changed; Minister Cho is expected to reaffirm the two countries' shared goal of denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and to repeatedly emphasize China's constructive role in this.

It is also expected that the structures China unilaterally installed in the West Sea off Korea will be raised for discussion.

In an interview with the Washington Post after taking office, Minister Cho said, "In Northeast Asia, another problem is that China is somewhat problematic for neighboring countries," which was interpreted as pointing to the West Sea structures in Korea-China relations.

After taking office, in July Minister Cho had his first phone call with Minister Wang Yi and said, "Korea places a high value on Korea-China relations, and we hope to promote closer high-level exchanges so that the Korea-China strategic cooperative partnership can achieve greater development toward the future."

Minister Wang said at the time he hopes South Korea's China policy is carried out "stably, sustainably, and predictably to avoid disruption," and that "Sino-Korean relations should not be constrained by any third country."

No Jeong-dong, Hankyung.com reporter dong2@hankyung.com