President Lee of South Korea requests assistance from Chinese leader Xi in interacting with North Korea

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung asked Chinese President Xi Jinping for help on Saturday to try to start talking to North Korea again about their nuclear weapons. Xi told Lee that he was ready to work with them to solve their problems.

Lee welcomed Xi at a state summit and dinner in Gyeongju, South Korea, after an Asia-Pacific leaders’ forum. It was Xi’s first trip to the U.S. ally in 11 years.

Xi told Lee’s office before the meeting that Beijing places a lot of value on its relationship with Seoul and sees South Korea as an essential partner in working together.

Lee was chosen president in a snap election in June. He has promised to improve relations with the US without making things worse with China and to try to ease tensions with North Korea.

In light of recent high-level talks between China and North Korea, Lee said, “I am very optimistic about the situation in which conditions for engagement with North Korea are being formed.”

“I also hope that South Korea and China will take advantage of these favourable conditions to strengthen strategic communication to resume dialogue with North Korea.”

Lee wants North Korea to get rid of its nuclear weapons in stages, starting with talks and a stop to any further work on nuclear weapons.

In a statement released on Saturday, Pyongyang, which is a military and economic partner of China, called the denuclearization plan a “pipe dream” that could never come true.

Lee has tried to talk to North Korea many times, but North Korea has said it will never talk to the South. In the past few years, Pyongyang has given up on its long-term plan to unite with the South and has called Seoul its main enemy.

Leader Kim Jong Un said he would be ready to talk to the US if the US dropped its demands for denuclearization. However, he did not publicly respond when US President Donald Trump offered to talk to Seoul earlier this week.

In a surprise move, Trump and Lee said they had reached an agreement to lower U.S. taxes in exchange for South Korea investing billions of dollars. After that, the U.S. president left before the main APEC leaders’ meeting.

At a briefing, South Korea’s national security adviser, Wi Sunglac, said that China said it was ready to work with South Korea to keep the Korean peninsula peaceful and stable, but the leaders did not say what role China would play. U.S. and North Korea should talk to each other, both sides agreed, Wi said.

The Chinese state media didn’t talk about the talks with Lee about North Korea when they reported on the meeting.

A report from Xinhua says that Xi suggested that for relations to start a new chapter, each country should “respect each other’s social systems and development paths, accommodate core interests and major concerns, and properly handle differences through friendly consultation.”

Xi also asked for preserving multilateralism and working together more in areas like biopharmaceuticals, green industries, aged populations, and artificial intelligence, according to Xinhua.

South Korea and China signed seven deals during Xi’s visit. These included a won-yuan currency swap and memorandums of understanding on a range of topics, such as cybercrime, businesses that help older people, and new ideas.

CARES ABOUT POLITICS AND THE ECONOMIC

The United States is South Korea’s military ally and a big trading partner. However, South Korea also depends a lot on trade with China.

On Saturday, when Xi and Lee met, hundreds of people took part in a gathering against China in Seoul.

As they marched through the busy shopping street in the Hongdae area, protesters held signs that said “South Korea belongs to South Korea” and “China Out.” They also chanted “Chinese and Communism, get out of South Korea.”

One protester, Kim Hye Kyung, 64, said she came to the gathering to “protect liberal democracy” in her country.

Because of more of these kinds of protests, Lee shut down anti-Chinese and anti-foreigner rallies in October, saying they were bad for the country’s business and image.

There was a “productive” conversation between Lee and Xi about the Chinese bans on five U.S.-linked units of the South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean (042660.KS), according to Wi. China said the sanctions were because the company was helping with U.S. probes, which could be dangerous for national security.

Wi said that at the summit, people talked about putting years-long limits on South Korean entertainment material. This is because the US-led Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system was put in place in South Korea in 2017. As both sides wanted to learn about each other’s cultures, he said they could keep talking about the issue at work.

Lee also talked about structures that have been put in areas that are disputed between the two countries. China says these structures are there for fishing.

The South Korean defense minister met with his Chinese colleague on the sidelines of an ASEAN defense summit in Malaysia on Saturday. They talked about China’s military activity in Korea’s Air Defense Identification Zone (KADIZ).