Chinese president to visit Seoul

Chinese president to visit Seoul

BEIJING (Reuter): Jiang Zemin will visit Seoul in November, the first Chinese president to go to South Korea, a sign of warming relations with the South and worsening ties with the North.

The visit was decided at a meeting yesterday between South Korean Prime Minister Lee Hong-koo and Jiang, who had arrived home only hours earlier from Moscow where he attended celebrations to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, a South Korean spokesman said by telephone.

It was Lee's first full day of a seven-day visit.

The visit by Jiang, also Communist Party chief, shows how far Beijing has moved towards Seoul and away from Pyongyang, which has not received a visit from a senior Chinese leader since the death of President Kim Il-sung in July 1994.

Elderly Chinese leaders had strong personal ties with Kim Il- sung, but not with his reclusive son and successor Kim Jong-il, who has not visited China in many years, diplomats said.

Seoul and Beijing established diplomatic relations only in 1992, ending four decades of hostility. Economic and political ties have warmed rapidly, with South Korean President Kim Young- sam visiting China in March 1994 and Chinese Premier Li Peng going to Seoul in November.