China calls for boosting cooperation with S.Korea without interference: Yonhap report

By Hyonhee Shin

(Reuters) -China and South Korea are facing increasing difficulties, but should strengthen cooperation without interference, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his South Korean counterpart on Monday, according to the Seoul-based Yonhap news agency.

Cho Tae-yul, South Korea's foreign minister who is visiting Beijing, said that the two countries needed to keep up momentum on cooperation and carefully manage ties so disagreement does not turn into conflict, Yonhap quoted him as saying during his meeting with Wang.

Cho arrived in Beijing earlier in the day, marking his first trip to China since taking office in January and the first visit to the country by a South Korean foreign minister in more than six years.

"Difficulties and challenges facing China-South Korea relations have clearly increased, which does not serve the common interests of our two countries and is something China does not want to see," Yonhap cited as Wang as saying.

"I hope China and South Korea will face each other without interference, and will work together to promote healthy and stable development of the relations," he said.

Economic relations between South Korea and China face risks and challenges due to increasingly fierce competition over technology, Cho told South Korean business leaders ahead of his talks with Wang.

Cho said that once mutually beneficial economic ties were seeing intensifying rivalry, and vowed support for businessmen seeking to harness market opportunities in China while minimising any accompanying risks.

Amid intensifying Sino-U.S. rivalry, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has sought to tread a careful path in his country's relations with China, South Korea's largest trade partner. But as a staunch U.S. ally, his administration has been more vocal over tension in the Taiwan Strait and China's repatriation of North Korean defectors, among other issues.

South Korea and China have also been pushing to develop an edge in areas such as semiconductors and AI.

"The heavy interdependence between Korea and China has been a driving force behind mutual economic growth and prosperity, but it also has the duality of carrying risks and we are bound to be substantially affected by such a change," Cho said, according to a transcript of his comments seen by Reuters.

"The Chinese economy is changing towards a technological and regional industrial structure, and the bilateral economic relationship is shifting from a once mutually complementary partnership to a competitive one, which I think is posing a serious challenge to us."

Wang and Cho are expected to discuss an upcoming trilateral summit involving Japan and bilateral and regional topics, including the repatriation issue.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Ju-min Park, Editing by Ed Davies and Raju Gopalakrishnan)