Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao arrived in South Korea Tuesday for a visit expected to focus on trade as well as ways to resolve the impasse over North Korea's nuclear programme.
China has since become South Korea's largest trading partner, with total trade value reaching 130 billion dollars last year according to Chinese figures. Wen said last week he expects ties to deepen further.
"China and South Korea should come up with a win-win FTA (free trade agreement) proposal at an early date so as to pave the way for the FTA," he said.
"As a result of economic globalisation, China-South Korea trade ties have entered a new era, requiring us to expand cooperation, improve quality and cope with challenges together," Wen said last Thursday, three days after the United States and South Korea concluded an FTA.
The two sides will also push for progress in six-nation talks on scrapping North Korea's nuclear weapons, which are stalled by a banking dispute.
Around the time that Wen arrived, US negotiator Christopher Hill said in Tokyo that it would be "difficult to meet the precise deadline" this week for North Korea to shut down a nuclear site as part of a disarmament deal.
China since 2003 has hosted the talks also grouping the two Koreas, the United States, Russia and Japan. In a February 13 deal the North agreed to give up its nuclear programmes in exchange for economic aid and diplomatic benefits.
But it refuses to take the first step, scheduled for completion by April 14, until it receives 25 million dollars in funds which were frozen in a Macau bank.
He and Roh are expected to finalise an agreement to set up military hotlines to handle unforeseen situations in the Yellow Sea, Seoul military officials have said.
There was uproar in South Korea last year when the state-funded Chinese Academy of Social Sciences published reports arguing that Korea's ancient Balhae kingdom (699-926 AD) was a vassal state of China.
Some South Korean media and academics say Beijing has hired scholars to distort the history of the Korean kingdoms in case territorial disputes flare up after North Korea collapses or merges with the South.
At a meeting in Helsinki last year Roh expressed regret to Wen over the historical research programme and warned of negative repercussions on relations.
Wen is accompanied by Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing and Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, among other officials. He will meet party leaders in parliament Wednesday before starting his three-day visit to Japan.
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