hankyoreh

Gen. Rhee Sang-hee, chairman of South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), will visit China this week to discuss ways of expanding bilateral military ties, his office said Monday.

Rhee will leave for Beijing on Wednesday and meet with his Chinese counterpart Yang Guanglie and Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan during his five-day stay, the JCS office said in a statement.

He will be the third top South Korean military officer to visit China since the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992.

Next Monday, Rhee will fly to Russia to discuss how to increase exchanges of military personnel and secure peace in Northeast Asia, the office said. He will meet with his Russian counterpart Uyri Nikolaevich Baluevckyi and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov.

"He will ask Chinese and Russian military leaders to contribute to solving the missile issue in a peaceful manner as well as cooperate in restarting the six-party talks," according to the statement.

North Korea is reportedly preparing to test-fire a long-range missile, and the six-party talks involving the two Koreas, the United States, China, Russia and Japan have been deadlocked since the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on the communist country.

Seoul, July 3 (Yonhap News)