China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao (right) meets with South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan, in Gyeongju, South Korea on November 1, 2025. Photo: MOFCOM

China's Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao met with South Korea's Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Kim Jung-kwan, in Gyeongju, South Korea on Saturday. The two sides exchanged views on maintaining the stability of industrial and supply chains and strengthening regional and multilateral cooperation, according to the website of China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Sunday.

During the meeting, Wang stated that China and South Korea are important neighbors and partners. China is willing to work with South Korea to implement the key consensus reached by the two countries' leaders and to promote new development in China-South Korea economic and trade relations, said Wang.

The Chinese commerce minister said that the two sides should strengthen communication and coordination through mechanisms such as the China-South Korea supply chain cooperation hotline, export control dialogues and trade remedy cooperation frameworks to ensure the stability and smooth operation of China-South Korea supply chains.

Both sides should also enhance cooperation under the frameworks of the World Trade Organization and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, promote the early resumption of China-Japan-South Korea free trade agreement negotiations, and jointly safeguard free trade and multilateralism, said Wang.

Kim said that China is an important economic and trade partner for South Korea, and South Korea is willing to work with China to accelerate the second-phase negotiations of the South Korea-China free trade agreement, promote local-level economic and trade cooperation, and continue deepening bilateral trade and investment as well as regional and multilateral cooperation.

The ministerial meeting sends a positive signal and creates favorable expectations for deepening China-South Korea cooperation in key areas such as the supply chain and industry chain, which matter not only to China and South Korea but also to regional development, Da Zhigang, director of the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies at the Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Sunday.

Economic and trade cooperation serves as a stabilizing cornerstone of China-South Korea relations. In 2024, bilateral trade reached $328.08 billion, up 5.6 percent year-on-year. China has been South Korea's largest trading partner for 21 consecutive years, while South Korea is China's second-largest trading partner, the Xinhua News Agency reported.

"Amid the current complex global geopolitical environment, industrial and supply chains face instability and shocks, and the importance of China and South Korea working together to maintain the stability of these chains is self-evident," Da said.

Regional industrial and supply chains not only involve bilateral cooperation between China and South Korea but also extend to Southeast Asia and other countries in the Indo-Pacific region, said the Chinese expert, noting that given the strong complementarity between the two countries, if the two countries can strengthen cooperation on a regional basis in the Asia-Pacific, they can build a solid foundation for collaborating in innovation, addressing population aging, and promoting green development, laying a stable and long-term groundwork for bilateral ties.