Strategic partnership with ROK announced

Beijing and Seoul will upgrade their relationship from a "comprehensive cooperative partnership" to a "strategic cooperative partnership" while intensifying cooperation in security, trade and people-to-people exchanges.

The announcement was made yesterday by President Hu Jintao and his Republic of Korea (ROK) counterpart Lee Myung-bak after 80 minutes of talks.

The two also agreed to establish a strategic dialogue mechanism between the two foreign ministries to coordinate on key issues of common concern.