According to Yonhap News,

(SEOUL=Yonhap News) President Park Geun-hye will hold separate talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang this week, an official said Monday, ahead of China's celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Park is set to meet with Xi on Wednesday upon her arrival in China for a three-day visit, Ju Chul-ki, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs, told reporters.

The two leaders are expected to hold an in-depth discussion on bilateral relations and the situations on the Korean Peninsula and the region, Ju said.

It would be the sixth such meeting between the two leaders since Park took office in early 2013.

The meeting will be followed by Park's separate talks with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang on issues of mutual interest, including a free trade agreement.

Park and Li are expected to discuss how to maximize economic cooperation, said Ju.

The free trade agreement, signed in June, needs to be ratified by the respective legislatures of Seoul and Beijing before taking effect.

On Thursday, Park plans to watch the huge military parade to be staged in Tiananmen Square before attending a luncheon reception to be hosted by Xi at the Great Hall of the People, Ju said. The square is the site of the bloody crackdown of the pro-democracy movement in 1989.

Ju said Park has decided to attend the ceremony after "careful consideration by taking into account various factors, including South Korea-China relations and better management of the situation on the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia."

South Korea and China are former battlefield foes as China fought on North Korea's side against South Korea and the U.S.-led U.N. forces in the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty. South Korea and China have steadily improved ties since establishing diplomatic relations in 1992.

The trip will also take Park to Shanghai to attend a ceremony to reopen a historic building that was used by Korea's provisional government during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Many Koreans moved to China to continue the anti-Japanese resistance movement during the colonial rule.

The provisional government was formed on April 13, 1919, as the Korean government-in-exile, a month after Korea launched an independence movement against Japan. The Korean Peninsula was later divided into the capitalistic South and the communist North after its independence from Japan in 1945.

Park will also meet with representatives of the Korean community and attend a South Korea-China business forum in Shanghai before returning home.

entropy@yna.co.kr

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