hankyoreh

South Korea's economic and cultural relationship with China has surpassed that of its ties with its long-time ally, the United States, just 15 years after Seoul's 1992 normalization of relations with Beijing, even though China fought the 1950-53 Korean War alongside its communist ally, North Korea. China, which normalized ties with South Korea on Aug. 24, 1992, became South Korea's largest trading partner in 2004, surpassing the United States and Japan, while South Korea became China's third-largest trading partner.

The volume of bilateral trade between South Korea and China jumped to over US$134 billion last year from $6.3 billion in 1992, according to government statistics.

Two-way trade volume between South Korea and the United States in 2006 came to $76.8 billion, while the comparable figure for South Korea-Japan was $78.5 billion.

The number of people traveling to the other country also increased nearly 40-fold, from some 130,000 in 1992 to over 4.8

milion in 2006, according to Foreign Ministry figures.

Some 20,000 South Korean firms are currently operating businesses in China.

South Korea's aggregate investment in China reached $13.5

billion in 2005, according to ministry statistics. China puts the figure at $31.1 billion.

About 800 weekly flights connect South Korea's six major cities with some 30 Chinese cities these days, while the number for South Korea and the U.S. is about 200.

Samsung Economic Research Institute said in a report released Wednesday that bilateral trade with China in the last 15 years has added some 35 trillion won (US$37 billion) to South Korea's gross domestic product for the period, contributing to the average 0.46 percent in annual growth rate for South Korea.

"This means China contributed to 8.7 percent of annual growth if we were to say South Korea's economy grew by 100 percent a year," the report said.

Such a rapid improvement in the relations between Seoul and Beijing comes almost as a shock to South Korea's older generation, which fought against China's Red Army troops in the Korean War.

"Establishing diplomatic ties then was a shock to the world, and such a leap in the relationship between the two in all aspects is once again shocking the world," Kim Ha-joong, South Korea's ambassador to Beijing, said in an interview with Yonhap.

Observers attribute the rapid improvement in ties to geographical proximity, as well as a historical connection that dates back thousands of years.

On the other hand, history serves as one of major hurdles to further improvement in bilateral ties.

The two close neighbors have often clashed in recent years over what South Koreans believe is an attempt by China to claim that the history of the ancient Korean kingdom of Goguryo, which ruled most of northeastern China for more than 700 years until the late seventh century, was Chinese.

China has dismissed South Korea's concerns over the Goguryo issue, saying that the Beijing government has no intention of interfering in academic research projects on Goguryo. "Many South Koreans have long worried about rapid growth and expansion of Asia's so-called population giant, China, mainly because it is a communist state," said an official at the Foreign Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to diplomatic protocol.

"But the history dispute has also added to the worries of the South Koreans, as they began to believe China would not be a benign force when it gains world hegemony," the official said.

Still, the official noted China's growth also means an opportunity for South Korea.

"The key issue is how we, South Korea, will or can affect the future of China as well as Northeast Asia and the world," he said.

To this end, Seoul in 2003 launched a presidential committee to explore South Korea as a Northeast Asian business hub, which is currently called the "Presidential Committee for Northeast Asian Cooperation Initiative."

"I believe we need not look at China's economic growth with too much skepticism," said Ambassador Kim.

"Instead, we should effectively make the most of our geographical contiguity, historical ties and cultural resemblance with China that no other nation has, so we, too, can leap ahead along with China's development," he said.

SEOUL, Aug. 23 (Yonhap News)