Top envoys of US, China hold talks

The ambassadors of the United States and China to South Korea met one-on-one Wednesday and discussed the two countries' bilateral relations and other issues, embassy officials said.

The meeting between Ambassadors Harry Harris and Xing Haiming took place at the US envoy's residence in central Seoul earlier in the day, an embassy official said. The meeting lasted for about 90 minutes.

Harris later tweeted about their meeting, along with a selfie they took together -- with broad smiles.

"Good meeting with PRC Ambassador to ROK, H.E. Xing Haiming. We discussed the important USA-PRC relationship," Harris wrote, referring to China and South Korea by the acronyms of the countries' official names: the People's Republic of China and the Republic of Korea.

It was their first one-on-one meeting since Xing took office in late January.

"Ambassador Harris commented afterward that he enjoyed the productive discussion with Ambassador Xing on a broad range of diplomatic issues," a US Embassy spokesperson said on the customary condition of anonymity.

A spokesperson from the Chinese Embassy said the meeting came as a courtesy call by Xing, who became the ambassador to South Korea early this year, and they discussed various issues, including topics of mutual concern.

The meeting came as tensions run high between the two superpowers over a wide range of issues. (Yonhap)