On the afternoon of May 8 local time, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in the hotel where he stays during his visit to Moscow. Both sides held in-depth talks on comprehensively strengthening China-South Korea friendly cooperative relations and the regional and international issues of common concern.

Hu pointed out that with the joint efforts of both sides China-South Korea relations have been developing rapidly. The bilateral political mutual trust keeps deepening and economic and trade cooperation continues expanding. Based on the 27% of year-on-year growth of bilateral trade volume in the first quarter this year, the objective of raising bilateral annual trade volume to US$100 billion set by both sides will be realized in advance. The bilateral cooperation in the fields of culture and education gets increasingly dynamic. In regional and international affairs the two countries also maintain close coordination and collaboration. He reiterated that the Chinese government attaches great importance to the relations with South Korea and expects to work with South Korea to constantly push forward the all-round bilateral partnership.

Roh Moo-hyun fully agreed with Hu's comments on bilateral relations. He expressed gladness to see the steady development of South Korea-China relations. The stable growth of Chinese economy has stimulated the progress of bilateral economic and trade relations. The South Korean government and business community expect to further expand the economic and technological cooperation between the two countries. He also expressed satisfaction over the achievements of South Korea-China exchanges and cooperation in the fields of security and national defense.

Talking about the Northeast Asia situation and the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue, Roh Moo-hyun thanked China for its efforts of promoting the six-party talks and maintaining peace and stability on the Peninsular. He said that the change of situation on the Peninsular deserves the serious attention of all parties concerned and South Korea hopes that peace and stability on the Peninsular can be maintained and China continues to play an active role. Hu said that recently the Korean Peninsular nuclear issue experienced some changes to which we should pay attention. We always hold that to peacefully solve the nuclear issue on the Peninsular through dialogue complies with the interest of all parties involved. We have been making consistent efforts of promoting the peace talks. Whatever difficulties we face, so long as there exists any hope we should continue our efforts of pushing for peaceful talks. We hope to see joint efforts made by all parties related to resume the six-party talks as soon as possible and maintain the track of peaceful settlement of the Peninsula's nuclear issue through dialogue.

Two heads of state also exchanged opinions on other issues of common concern.