New ROK ambassador to China may help promote improvement in ties

NOH YOUNG-MIN, the Republic of Korea's new ambassador to China, assumed office on Tuesday in Beijing. Wang Junsheng, an expert on Korean Peninsula affairs at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, shared his views on Noh's appointment and its implications for the China-ROK ties with China Daily:

Although an immediate improvement remains unlikely, the appointment of Noh, who served as chief of staff for ROK President Moon Jae-in during the 2012 presidential election, could herald a positive change in the troubled relations between Beijing and Seoul.

His comments that the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system does not target China, and that the struggles of some ROK companies in the Chinese market have little to do with THAAD, were courteous. However, more importantly, a week before he came to Beijing, he hailed China as a close neighbor and expressed the Moon administration's willingness to get bilateral ties back onto the right track.