South Korea's new president began a visit Tuesday to China. Lee Myung-bak, a former Hyundai executive and Seoul mayor, took office in February and made his first overseas trip to the United States. Lee was to meet President Hu Jintao later Tuesday. During his trip he was also expected to speak at Peking University and to travel to the eastern city of Qingdao in Shandong province, where many South Korean companies have set up operations across the Yellow Sea from the Korean peninsula, according to a report of the Associated Press. «We should expand our cooperation and build up friendship and trust between the two peoples, this is very important,» Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Tuesday. «We share the same aspiration, that is, to bring our relations to a new level and in this regard the two countries would like to make joint efforts.»
