Chinese President Hu Jintao and visiting ROK President Roh Moo-hyun stressed that both countries share a wide common consensus on the Democratic of People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) nuclear issue, to maintain the non-nuclearization on the Peninsula and to peacefully resolve the issue through dialogue.

Roh arrived in Beijing Monday morning. China is the third country he has travelled to in the four months since he was inaugurated as the ROK leader. He made visits to the United States and Japan respectively in May and June.

This is also the first meeting between Hu and Roh since they both took office.

Roh is visiting China with his wife Kwon Yang-sook, 15 senior ROK officials and 30 business people.

ROK Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Yoon Young-kwan, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Energy Yoon Jin-sik and Minister of Information and Communication Chin Dae-je, are among the high-ranking officials accompanying Roh.

Before Roh's visit, both sides confirmed that the DPRK nuclear issue would be one of the key topics during his meetings with Chinese leaders.

The English-language Korea Times newspaper said Roh's trip to China should be a golden opportunity for Seoul to seek Beijing's full co-operation on the nuclear issue.

Roh, expressing thanks for China's efforts on the issue, stressed yesterday when meeting Hu that the ROK highly appraises the "Beijing Talks.''

Roh said the ROK hopes the talks can continue.

China hosted an initial round of talks between China and the United States in April on the nuclear issue.

China also sent senior diplomats to Washington and Moscow this week to discuss the issue.

On bilateral relations, Hu suggested yesterday to enhance high-level exchanges between the two countries and deepen mutual co-operation in various fields such as the economy and trade, science, energy, finance, culture and education.

He characterized the development of China-ROK relations as "rapid growth, remarkable achievements, vast potential and broad prospects.''

Hu encouraged both countries to realize the target of US$100 billion bilateral trade volume within five years.

The trade volume between the two countries rocketed to US$44.07 billion last year, eight times of that in 1992.

China has replaced Japan, becoming the ROK's third largest export destination, while the ROK is the fifth largest export market of China.

However, Piao Jianyi, executive-director of the Centre for Korean Peninsula Issues Studies of the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told China Daily that issue of China's chronic trade deficit with the ROK would be a major concern for China in developing bilateral economic ties.

(China Daily July 8, 2003)