S. Korea, China agree to hold joint economic committee session in Beijing

All News 17:09 April 08, 2018

SEOUL, April 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and China agreed to re-open their annual joint economic committee session later this month in Beijing, Seoul's Foreign Ministry said Sunday.

This is the first time since 2016 that South Korean and Chinese commerce officials will have such a meeting. The two sides didn't hold the session last year due to the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on South Korean soil and its subsequent souring of relations.

"Our foreign ministry and China's commerce ministry agreed to hold the 22nd committee session in Beijing later this month," an official with Seoul's Foreign Ministry said. "We are currently discussing the details of the topics, but we'll probably check on the progression of agreements that were reached at the summit between two countries last December and other bilateral economic cooperation issues."

South Korea will be represented by Second Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun, and his Chinese counterpart will be Vice Commerce Minister Gao Yan, the ministry said.

South Korea and China have held high-level talks on a regular basis since 1993, a year after the two nations established diplomatic ties. The 21st committee session was hosted in Seoul two years ago.

A foreign ministry official said the two countries are likely to discuss the lifting of China's economic restrictions on South Korean businesses, imposed following the THAAD battery deployment.

South Korea's presidential office Cheong Wa Dae previously stated that Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi said at a meeting with President Moon Jae-in on March 30 that such issues regarding the normalization of Chinese group tours to South Korea and the selling of Lotte Mart's Chinese units will see "tangible results" in the near future.