ROK’s President Moon wraps up his first state visit to China

World Today

During the final day of his state visit to China, ROK President Moon Jae-In visited a historical site in Chongqing to pay respects to the ‘roots’ of his country’s government. He also pledged to deepen his country’s economic ties with China. CGTN’s Ge Yunfei has the story.

On Saturday morning, President Moon visited the former office of the Korean government-in-exile and presented flowers to the statue of his predecessor Kim Koo, an independence leader. He also had a short meeting with descendants of the Korean independence movement activists.

“The Provisional government of Republic of Korea was established in Shanghai in 1919 and moved to Chongqing in 1940. That led to the formation of The Korean Liberation Army. And many officers of this army actually graduated from Chinese military schools,” Meng Xiao, a guide at the ROK Provisional Government Museum, explained.

Before leaving the site, Moon wrote an inscription saying, “the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea is our root and our spiritual source.”

There is a shared history between China and South Korea; both resisted Japan’s aggression during WWII.

Moon had already sent his condolences over the Nanjing Massacre twice while in Beijing. His trip to Chongqing apparently seeks to highlight the long history of friendship and cooperation between the two countries.

Later, President Moon attended a China-ROK economic forum and gave a speech expressing South Korea’s strong desire to participate in China’s Belt & Rad Initiative.

“There are several economical corridors in the Belt & Road Initiative,” he said, “but there is one missing link: the Korean peninsula.”

“We hope to work with China to build an intercontinental rail network that connects the Korean peninsula, China, Russia, Mongolia, and Europe. Also, we could cooperate in the fields of energy, a cross-border power grid, and a digital silk road to shape the future. ”

Later in the afternoon, Moon finished his trip by visiting a joint-venture factory of the South Korean car- maker Hyundai.