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.