Leaving behind a nation in euphoria after a highly successful Olympics, Chinese President Hu Jintao flew on Monday to a joyous Republic of Korea, which achieved its best-ever results at the Games in Beijing. But exchanges of congratulations between the visiting Chinese leader and President Lee Myung-bak should have been brief, as they had a heavy business agenda to contend with.

The Republic of Korea (ROK) and China, Cold War adversaries until the early 1990s, have developed their relations in trade, economic and security matters at a rapid pace, with few parallels in international community.

In their third meeting - after the first in May when Lee visited Beijing and the second in Hokkaido during the G8 conference - the leaders of the two neighbors are again emphasizing the elevation of their relations to a "strategic cooperative partnership". Now the two presidents have to come up with practical ways to substantiate this rather wide-ranging proposition.

President Lee's declared policy of close ties with the United States, after a considerable schism under the previous Seoul administration, made China uneasy about the future shape of the security structure in Northeast Asia, a possible explanation for the frequent Korea-China summits.

As for Lee, the recent direct negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang over the denuclearization process, despite their slow progress, have forced him to seek closer collaboration with Beijing in playing a more positive role in the Six-Party Talks.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s situation was no doubt the matter of foremost concern at the summit. Hu's two-day visit here on the way to a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, offered little time for the two leaders to go into detailed discussions. Yet, they at least needed to make a candid assessment of the present situation in the DPRK.

Bilateral matters include concluding a free trade agreement and raising annual two-way trade volume to US$200 billion by 2010, cooperation on climate change and joint steps in anti-terror activities. Documents detailing cooperation in energy conservation, prevention of desertification, trade and investment information exchanges, and expansion of educational cooperation will be signed.

With his current visit, Hu became the first Chinese head to come to Seoul twice during his tenure. With more than 6 million people traveling between the two countries each year and about 64,000 Korean students studying in China and 33,000 Chinese students in the ROK, regular summit meetings between Seoul and Beijing are fully warranted.

While the top leaders are seeking to advance strategic cooperation in economic and security affairs, they should also pay attention to promoting genuine friendship on the public level, considering the rise of a certain antipathy, possibly growing out of a sense of competition between the two peoples. The Beijing Olympics should serve as a catalyst for China to show the world its good will, and we are receiving the Chinese president as the first crusader in this endeavor.

The Korea Herald

(China Daily August 27, 2008)