Chronologies
China - Korea
Chronology from Apr 2003 to Jul 2003
: Ruling party President Chyung Dai-chul meets with President Hu in Beijing and urges him to hold a summit with North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-il to persuade North Korea to accept multilateral talks.
: Samsung Electronics announces plans to set up a computer memory chip research and development center in Suzhou, China.
: Korea International Trade Association announces that $30.33 million of kimchi exports in the first four months of 2003 are on track for a record performance, outstripping prior year exports by 38.4 percent.
: A study of the Korean Federation of Textile Industries projects that China’s textile exports in 2005 are likely to compose 50 percent of the global textile and apparel market.
: ROK FM Yoon and PRC FM Li discuss the North Korean nuclear issue on the sidelines of the ARF in Phnom Penh.
: Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency projects that losses to Korean investors in China due to SARS will reach $2.5 billion by the end of June.
: Tianshan Industrial Company Ltd., announces that Korean firms will participate in a construction project to build the largest high-tech industrial park in Hebei Province, a 660,000 sq. meter project to be completed by 2005 known as the Tianshan Science and Technology Industrial Park.
: Korean businessmen and students start to return to China after the subsiding of the SARS epidemic.
: Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency announces that Korean exporters have aggressively expanded their share of exports to China from 5.16 percent to 9.68 percent during the past decade.
: Two South Koreans, including New York Times photographer Seok Jae-hyun and human rights activist Choi Young-hoon, are among five people sentenced to prison terms of up to five years for helping a group of North Korean defectors board a ship to Korea from Yantai, China.
: ROK Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Energy announces that Korean investment in China in the first quarter increased by 120 percent year-on-year to $310 million. Korean investment in China was 39.8 percent of Korea’s total overseas investment during this period.
: PRC Vice Foreign Minister Wang Yi travels to Seoul to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue with senior South Korean officials, including South Korean counterpart Kim Jae-sup.
: According to the British daily Independent, North Korea has quarantined 20 foreigners and closed its borders to prevent SARS from entering North Korea. Air Koryo canceled its twice weekly flight to Beijing.
: Samsung Electronics announces that it is delaying the opening of its second household appliances plant in Suzhou, Zhangzhou Province, due to SARS.
: ROK President Roh Moo-hyun and PRC President Hu agree to continue efforts to peacefully resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis in a telephone conversation.
: ASEAN Plus Three meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on SARS.
: PRC hosts talks with the U.S. and the DPRK on North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
: The Korean Sharing Movement announces that the DPRK has asked South Korean humanitarian organizations to delay visits to Pyongang due to precautions taken as a result of SARS.
: PRC President Hu Jintao meets with Deputy Chairman of the DPRK Defense Commission Gen. Cho Myong-rok.
: PRC Ambassador to the ROK Li Bin says that the PRC does not intend to mediate between the U.S. and North Korea and that any issues regarding the Peninsula should be resolved between the two Koreas.
: Reports circulate that the PRC will host talks on North Korea’s nuclear program in Beijing including the U.S. and North Korea April 23-25. PRC press spokesman Liu Jianchao clarifies that China is not opposed to “relevant countries” taking part in multilateral talks on North Korea’s nuclear program.
: ROK Foreign Minister Yoon Young-kwan meets PRC Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing in Beijing. Both sides agree to cooperate in establishing a multilateral dialogue including North Korea to resolve nuclear tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
: Korean Air and Asiana Airlines announce that they are temporarily cutting back or halting flights to areas of mainland China affected by SARS.
: Korean firms including Samsung, POSCO, and LG initiate steps to recall or restrict travel by employees to SARS-affected areas of China and Southeast Asia.