Pres. Lee to Hold Summit with China Today

President Lee Myung-bak will have a summit today with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Seoul, their third meeting.

Hu will stay in Korea until Tuesday in his first overseas trip since the end of the Beijing Olympics.

At the top of the agenda is action plans to consolidate a strategic cooperative partnership between the two countries and measures to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis. They will also adopt a joint statement after the talks.

Lee will present his policy goals for North Korea named “Denuclearization and Opening 3000,” and ask for Chinese support for verification of Pyongyang`s nuclear program and transition to the third stage of denuclearization.

They will also discuss starting bilateral free trade talks and revising and upgrading a 2005 joint research report for two-way economic and trade cooperation. The goal is to raise trade volume to 200 billion U.S. dollars by 2010.

Lee and Hu will also discuss improving exchanges between the heads of state, high-level diplomats and defense officials to ensure implementation of the proposed measures, the presidential office in Seoul said.

ddr@donga.com