President Jiang Zemin met Wednesday with South Korean President Kim Dae-jung and exchanged views on bilateral relations and the situation in the Korean peninsula.

Citing reunions of the separated families and meeting of the ministers from the two sides, Kim told Jiang that a good momentum has emerged in the south-north dialogue since the June 15 summit meeting between the leaders of the Republic of Korean (ROK) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

The South Korean president expressed his heartfelt thanks to China for the support China extended to the success of the summit between the two sides on the Korean peninsula.

Jiang, for his part, said that China is concerned about the development of the situation on the peninsula and the successful historical summit has clearly relaxed the nearly 50-year old tension there.

The Chinese president said that China will continue to support anything beneficial to the relaxation of tension and peaceful reunification of the peninsula.

Kim said that the ROK and DPRK will continue their cooperation in easing tensions, consult on economic cooperation and start the social and cultural exchanges.

The two presidents expressed satisfaction with the development of relations between China and ROK, and their wishes to further promote the bilateral ties.

Kim said that he believes Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji's visit to ROK in October will be successful.

(People’s Daily 09/07/2000)