President Park Says North Korea Provocations Challenge Seoul-Beijing Ties

South Korea President Park Geun-hye said that North Korea's provocations brought a challenge to the South Korea and China ties.

On Monday, President Park voiced her hope for Seoul and Beijing to continue to have a good bilateral relationship despite of the situation regarding North's provocation procedures. During the summit event in China, President Park made some remarks with the Chinese President Xi Jinping about the issue.

The summit aims to amid strains the relations between Seoul and Beijing over the deployment of US anti-missile system in South Korea or the THAAD.  The summit was held in Hangzou, which is China's eastern lake side city together with the Group of 20 advanced and growing economies of China.

 "This year, North Korea conducted a fourth nuclear test and a ballistic missile provocation, which has seriously undermined peace in this region and posed a challenge to the development of the South Korea-China relations. (I) hope that through earnest communication, our two countries can turn this challenge into an opportunity to further strengthen and move forward our bilateral relationship," President Park said at the summit.

The issue about the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system on the Korean Peninsula has brought a crack in the relations of Seoul-Beijing ties because Beijing greatly opposed the plan predicting that it will bring harm to security interests. On the other hand, Seoul said that the move is an inevitable self-defense to counter Pyongyang's nuclear and missile threats.

According to China's Xinhua News Agency, President Xi restated his opposition to the THAAD with the presence of President Barack Obama during the summit. Xi asked the US to respect the China's opinion regarding the security interests.

"All parties to refrain from any act that could escalate regional tension and collectively make positive efforts to put the situation back on the right track," Xi said.