SEOUL, Nov. 11 (Yonhap) — China will work with South Korea to resolve urea solution shortages, Chinese Ambassador Xing Haiming said Thursday, after the ruling Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, Lee Jae-myung, called for help from the neighboring nation.
Xing made the remark during a visit to Lee at the ruling party’s headquarters, saying China takes seriously difficulties South Korea is suffering due to shortages of the material used to reduce emissions in diesel vehicles.
South Korea has been grappling with a shortage of the diesel exhaust fluid and its surging prices in recent weeks, as China tightened exports of fertilizers and related materials, including urea, in October amid a power crisis caused by a coal supply shortage. Coal is the main feedstock for urea.
The country heavily relies on China for its supply of urea, with 97.6 percent of its imports coming from China in the first nine months of this year.
Xing told Lee that Beijing’s exports curbs are not targeted at certain countries and that China also lacks urea solution.
“Personally, I did not expect that shortage of this material would bring this much impact,” Xing said.
Lee stressed the country’s suffering from the shortage and it will be a big help if China pays attention to the issue.
“In fact, we have many items that rely nearly 100 percent on Chinese imports, so it could be a problem in the future,” he said. “As economic relations and cooperation between South Korea and China will expand and deepen in the future, I think it will be better if we can be prepared in advance.”
China recently confirmed it will go ahead with inspection processes on 18,700 tons of urea before exporting it to South Korea, according to Seoul’s foreign ministry, a move that will help South Korea to avert a potential logistics crisis as the supply shortage could suspend the operation of trucks and buses.
During the meeting, Lee also called for close cooperation with China on regional security issues, saying the two countries share interests in such complicated matters as North Korea’s nuclear and missile development programs.
“Complicated issues, such as peace on the Korean peninsula and North Korea’s nuclear and missile development, are important matters where both South Korea and China share interests,” he said. “South Korea and China have inseparable relations geopolitically and deep relations historically and culturally.”
Xing responded that China and South Korea are “important neighbors” to each other and that his country will make efforts to strengthen bilateral ties.
“China and South Korea are at an important time to further develop and deepen their ties,” he said. “Looking to the future, we will closely cooperate with South Korea so that the two sides can bolster their relationship in economic and trade sectors and build up their potential.”
Source: Yonhap News Agency