South Korea’s Yoon tells China’s Xi cooperation needed on Russia and North Korea

South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol told Chinese President Xi Jinping that their two countries should cooperate for peace in the face of North Korea and Russia’s military cooperation, Yoon’s office said on Saturday.

Yoon expressed his hope that “South Korea and China will cooperate in promoting stability and peace in the region in response to North Korea’s successive provocations, the war in Ukraine, and Russia-North Korea military cooperation”, his office said.

Yoon also called for the two countries to further strengthen cooperation in the economic sector, which he called “the central axis of bilateral relations over the past 30 years”, Yoon’s office said.

Xi and Yoon held a summit for the first time in two years on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Lima, Peru.

Xi told Yoon that “in the past two years, there has been no shortage of changes in the international and regional situation”, according to Chinese state media, without specifying any country or conflict.

He added that irrespective of those changes, both countries’ economies were highly integrated, shared cultural similarities and were geographically close, advantages that should continue to be tapped into by deepening cooperation.

Xi said he doesn’t want to see geopolitical tensions on the Korean peninsula and called for a peaceful solution, Yonhap reported. Both leaders suggested that they visit each other’s countries. South Korea is planning to host the Apec summit in 2025.