On November 19, 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao met with President of the Republic of Korea (ROK) Roh Moo-hyun in Santiago and the two sides exchanged views on China-ROK ties, regional situations and other issues of common interest. Both sides indicated that they will jointly commit to pushing China-ROK all-round cooperative partnership for continuous development.

Hu said that last year both sides jointly declared the launch of China-ROK all-round cooperative partnership in Beijing. Over the past one year, with the concerted efforts by both sides, bilateral exchanges and cooperation in various fields continue to develop and the consensus reached is being implemented. Politically, both sides understand and trust each other and pay attention to each other's concerns. In the economic and trade area, complementary advantages and cooperation potentials between the two sides are further emerging and China has become ROK's largest trading partner. In the cultural, educational and tourist areas, bilateral exchanges and cooperative results are remarkable. In the aspect of regional cooperation, both sides actively participate and maintain sound coordination and communication. Since both countries are important countries of the region, they should jointly shoulder the historical task of pushing forward regional cooperation. Both sides should strengthen cooperation in all regional dialogue and cooperative mechanisms so as to jointly commit to peace and development of the region.

Hu introduced to Roh Moo-hyun China's achievements in the reform of economic system since the reform and opening up, emphasizing that China's construction of market economic system has taken decisive steps. That the ROK, as China's important trading partner, confirms China's full market economy status at the earliest date possible will be a win-win issue and beneficial to enhanced economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries.

Roh Moo-hyun highly commented on the development of ROK-China ties and the growth of bilateral trade, stressing that his country holds high expectation for bilateral ties. He said the economies of China and the ROK are closely related to each other and China's successful development will bring more business opportunities to the ROK. He has instructed related developments to study the issue of China's full market economy status so as to make a report as soon as possible.