President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea (ROK) will pay a working visit to China on October 13 at the invitation of President Hu Jintao, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced yesterday.

This will be the second time for Roh to visit China since he took office in 2003.

Roh visited China for the first time in July 2003, when China and the ROK agreed to build an all-round co-operative partnership.

Liu gave no detailed agenda about Roh's visit. However, ROK presidential office spokesman Yoon Tae-Young told reporters in Seoul yesterday that Roh will meet with Hu and other Chinese leaders to discuss the nuclear issue of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and bilateral relations, according to an AFP report.

"The date (for the visit) was fixed before the North (DPRK) announced on Tuesday its plans to conduct a nuclear test, but its nuclear programme would be on the agenda of the meeting," Yoon was quoted as saying.

The two countries have closely co-operated in the process of resolving the nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula, making joint contributions to realizing denuclearization of the peninsula.

During phone talks with Roh last July, Hu said that China highly values relations with the ROK and will work with the ROK to boost the development of China-ROK comprehensive co-operative partnership.

Both China and the ROK are key players of the stalled Six-Party Talks that are aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. The other participants of the talks are the United States, the DPRK, Japan and Russia.

China and ROK have also maintained smooth co-operation in political, economic, trade, cultural, educational, scientific and technological, environmental and military fields. They have co-ordinated on international and regional issues, observers said.

The smooth co-operation between China and the ROK has contributed to regional peace and development, Hu said upon his state visit to the ROK in November 2005, when the ROK recognized China's market economy status.

China is the biggest trading partner of ROK and the No 1 destination of investment made by ROK's entrepreneurs. The ROK is the fourth largest trading partner and third largest import source of China. Trade volume between China and the ROK exceeded US$100 billion in 2005.

The two countries set the goal of increasing bilateral trade volume to US$200 billion by 2012.

Statistics show that there are more than 420 flights between China and the ROK every week. The ROK has become the biggest tourism source nation for China in 2005, and bilateral tourism co-operation has huge potential, according to China's National Tourism Administration.

Xinhua, agencies contributed to this story

Source: China Daily