The Republic of Korea (ROK) and the People's Republic of China, the two central nations in Northeast Asia, have maintained amicable relations for the past 10 years.
Both nations faced foreign invasions in the late 19th century in the course of massive Western penetration of the Far East.
In coping with these foreign invasions, the two countries have taken two different paths in terms of ideology.
Against this background, it was indeed a historically meaningful event that our two countries, with completely different ideologies, agreed to establish diplomatic ties with each other through concluding a historical treaty of friendship in 1992.
Measuring the development in political relations between two countries is not difficult. It is clearly expressed in the number of constructive state visits made by senior leaders of the two countries.
For the past 10 years, following the conclusion of the treaty of friendship, every ROK president has visited China. And representing China, President Jiang Zemin, Chairman Li Peng of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, Vice-President Hu Jintao, and Premier Zhu Rongji made state visits to the ROK.
These mutual visits by leaders clearly demonstrate the development of friendship and cooperation between the two sides over the years.
Such friendly dialogues between the leaders of both sides have deepened relations between our nations in political, economic and security terms.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude for China's efforts to deepen its ties with the ROK through its recognition of the vital importance of its relationship with the ROK.
Strengthened by an improvement of political ties, mutual relations in the economic field have become much closer and have advanced greatly.
The steady increase in trade between the two countries over the past 10 years has led to the ROK becoming the fourth largest trading partner of China. China is now the ROK's third largest trading partner.
China currently ranks behind the United States in terms of receiving the ROK's exports and investment. And in 2001, the ROK's exports to China totaled US$18.19 billion, while its imports from the country totaled US$13.33 billion.
This export figure represents a seven-fold increase on 1992 when goods worth US$2.65 billion were carried to China from the ROK.
On this basis, nowhere in the world can mutual relations be said to have developed more speedily.
While making a state visit to China in November 1998, ROK President Kim Dae-jung and Chinese President Jiang Zemin agreed to build an ROK-China cooperative partnership for the 21st century, setting out the path for future relations.
When Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji made a state visit to the ROK in October 2000, the leaders of both countries agreed to build a solid cooperative partnership towards the 21st century.
Since the establishment of these diplomatic ties, the relations of good neighborliness, friendship and cooperation have been greatly promoted between the two countries.
Presently, the Korean Peninsula is one of the most militarized places in the world and therefore peace and stability there are directly linked to peace and stability in Asia.
All people in the ROK well remember that China has continued to play a role in mediating peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula.
Cooperation between the two sides is beneficial to future peace and stability of the peninsula and the entire Asian region. In addition, since the two countries have continued to maintain mutual cooperation in a variety of areas in the United Nations, friendship and cooperation between the two sides are now becoming an important factor for creating world peace and stability.
Competitiveness is increasingly critical in today's industrialized global system.
The ROK and China have deepened mutual relations, mainly based on economy and trade.
For the past decade, the number of Koreans living in China has reached about 200,000, including 150,000 business people and their families and 50,000 students.
In addition, ROK investment in China totaled US$5,450 million in 605 projects. This makes China the second largest country to host ROK foreign direct investment, after the United States.
Despite the recent global recession and Japan's prolonged economic woes, the ROK and China are continuing rapid economic growth. China did not depreciate the yuan despite the Asian financial crisis of 1997, thus making a great contribution to stabilizing economies in Asia, including that of the ROK.
Economic cooperation between the ROK and China has greatly contributed to revitalizing Asian economic growth. Today many products developed by the ROK's advanced technologies and using China's cheap labor are prominent on the world market. They play a vital role in revitalizing the global economy.
The synergy effect from technology exchange between China (which excels in aviation, medical science and the aerospace industry) and the ROK (which excels in the auto industry, chemicals, mobile telecommunications and household electronics) has huge potential.
It is well known that the history of the Korean Peninsula, the lifestyle of people in the ROK, and the ROK's present existence and future development are inseparably related to China. This may be the main reason why people in the ROK particularly like the Chinese people among the nationalities of the world.
As far as I am concerned, the so-called "ROK trend," which expresses the spread of ROK culture into China, seems to stem from similar sentiment and cultural similarity between the two countries.
ROK-China relations will develop into a much larger and deeper partnership that goes beyond what has been seen so far. The more China accelerates its economic development, the more ROK-China relations will improve.
If peace is settled on the Korean Peninsula within 10 years, then diplomatic ties between the ROK and China will become much closer, and mutual interests will increase with it. China is now the world's fourth largest tour country. Accordingly, if developed properly, the Northeast Asian tour route is likely to contribute to the development of the two countries' tour industries.
All of these factors make me confident that the emergence of a new economic powerhouse is on the horizon.
Moreover, China paved the way towards becoming an advanced economy through its entry to the World Trade Organization and winning the right to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. These will undoubtedly enhance the profile of the nation in the global community.
( August 27, 2002)
