BEIJING: Beijing and Seoul have agreed to start formal talks for a free-trade agreement, after a visit by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak, according to a communique published in state media.
China is South Korea's largest trading partner and two-way trade between the neighbours is expected to reach $300 billion by 2015, the joint communique published in the People's Daily said.
That compares with $224.8 billion in the first 11 months of 2011 and dwarfs trade between China and the impoverished North, which reached $5.2 billion in the same period, official data shows.
"The two sides agreed that signing the free trade agreement as soon as possible would provide a more favourable environment for bilateral trade and economic cooperation," the communique said.
"The two sides agreed to start ... negotiations as soon as the South Korean side finishes its domestic procedures."
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said this week that talks could begin in the first half of this year.
Lee's three-day visit to Beijing, which ended Wednesday, was dominated by concerns over the leadership transition in nuclear-armed North Korea after longtime leader Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack last month.
China, which has thrown its support behind Kim's son and successor Kim Jong-Un, said it attached "great importance" to Lee's visit and hoped for a revival of the six-way denuclearisation talks, which the North walked out of.
Yonhap, citing a Seoul official, said Lee and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao had an "in-depth discussion" on the situation on the Korean peninsula and agreed to "work together" on the thorny issue.
"Maintaining peace and stability on the Korean peninsula and achieving long lasting peace and stability in northeast Asia is in the common interests of all parties," the communique said.
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