Summit in China

[Anchor Lead]

President Moon Jae-in meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday. There will be no joint statement and no news conference after their meeting. Normalizing bilateral ties after months of strain is the aim of this presidential summit, as the issue of South Korea’s deployment of the U.S. missile defense system THAAD continues to hamstring the Seoul-Beijing relations.

[Pkg]

President Moon Jae-in, who is scheduled to arrive in China on Wednesday, will attend an official welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People on December 14. He will then hold summit talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. The agenda of the meeting will likely include the North Korea nuclear issue and the normalization of economic and cultural exchanges between the two nations.

[Soundbite] Nam Gwan-pyo (National Security Office of Cheong Wa Dae) : "The upcoming visit is expected to lay a foundation for restoring trust between Korea and China, strengthen friendship between the two leaders, and normalize bilateral exchanges and cooperation."

However, Cheong Wa Dae said that the two leaders will neither issue any joint statements nor hold a news conference after the meeting. Only a joint press statement will be announced by each side. A high-ranking Seoul official said that it's because the two countries have yet to reach a consensus on the deployment of the U.S. missile defense system on the Korean Peninsula. Meanwhile, President Moon will also meet with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhang Dejiang, and rising Chinese politician and Communist Party Secretary of Chongqing Chen Min'er.