Chinese, South Korean presidents meet in Seoul

Seoul, March 26 (IANS) Chinese President Hu Jintao met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak Monday in Seoul to discuss bilateral ties.

The two leaders met on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit slated Monday and Tuesday in Seoul, reported Xinhua.

Over the past 20 years, bilateral economic and trade cooperation have been continuously expanded, people-to-people exchanges and cooperation in other areas have flourished and the two sides have also coordinated closely on multilateral issues, Hu said.

This is the tenth meeting between the two leaders over the past four years and the second between them this year. In January, the South Korean president visited China and held talks with Hu.

Hu also said Lee's January visit to China was a good start to the Sino-South Korean relations this year.

On his part, Lee said China had played an important role in making the summit a success.

Since the two sides established the strategic cooperative partnership in 2008, bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and various other spheres has rapidly developed, he noted.

While stressing that there was huge potential for bilateral pragmatic cooperation in more areas, the South Korean leader said that the further development of relations between their two countries would contribute greatly to the maintenance of peace in northeast Asia and the whole world.

In 2011, two-way trade between the two countries was recorded at $245.6 billion, an increase of 18 percent over the previous year.

The two countries are working towards realising the target of bilateral trade of $300 billion in 2015.