The Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Han Seung Soo described Friday the rapid growth of bilateral ties with China as "unprecedented".

"We have witnessed over five million ROK and Chinese people visit each other's country and the two-way trade volume expand 26 times bigger during the 17 years since ROK and China forged a diplomatic relationship", Han said.

Han made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua on the sideline of a spring conference of the Institute of International Finance in Beijing.

He said being neighbours, cultural similarity and friendship between the two peoples offered a solid foundation for the two nations to foster ties.

China and the ROK agreed to upgrade their "comprehensive and cooperative partnership" to "strategic cooperative partnership" in May, 2008 during the ROK president Lee Myung-bak's first visit to China.

"We can see profound changes take place in almost all the fields of bilateral cooperation since then, especially in trade and economy, culture, education and youth exchange," Han said.

He also recalled President Lee's visit last May to Dujiangyan, a city in Sichuan Province severely damaged by an 8.0-magnitude quake.

"The ROK people were so concerned and feel deep sympathy about those who lost theirs lives or families in the disaster," Han said.

He told Xinhua that the schoolboy Wei Yuehao who was held in the arms by President Lee during his visit to the quake zone was invited last month to the Cheong Wa DAE, the ROK presidential office "as a commemoration".

Han said the ROK was severely hit by the financial turmoil and the ROK government, in a bid for the economic recovery, has come up with policies to stimulate domestic demand, step up financial investment and expand employment opportunity, which had worked.

Han said China was the biggest trade partner and exporting market to the ROK, and he expressed his appreciation for the measures that China adopted to curb the effects of the financial crisis, noting that it would be a "win-win" solution if the two nations could work together to tackle the crisis.

The prime minister also called on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to abandon its nuclear test scheme and return to the six-party talks to address the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula at an early date.

On May 25, the DPRK announced it has "successfully conducted one more underground nuclear test," which Pyongyang said has demonstrated its "defensive nuclear deterrent." After the test, it also fired some short-range missiles.

"The status of a non-nuclear peninsula is not only a must for the peace and stability on the peninsula, but also for that of East Asia and the world," Han said, expressing his hope that China, which chairs the six-party talks, could continue to play its positive and constructive role.

Launched in 2003, the six-party talks grouped China, DPRK, ROK, the United States, Russia and Japan. The talks have been stalled since the top negotiators last met in Beijing last December.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2009)