Liu Qibao (left), head of the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, and South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Joon-sik attend the China-South Korea Media High-Level Dialogue in Seoul on Monday. Wu Xu / China News Service

China, South Korea high-level dialogue explores news outlets' role in cementing bilateral ties

Through integration, traditional and new media can grow with new impetus in China and South Korea, Liu Qibao, head of publicity for the CPC Central Committee, said in Seoul on Monday.

He said Beijing and Seoul should boost media cooperation based on deep cultural connections, to enhance understanding and relations on an individual level.

He made the remarks at the China-South Korea Media High-Level Dialogue, an annual forum for journalists from the two countries that was first held in 2009.

This year, representatives from nearly 30 media outlets, including China's People's Daily, Xinhua and China Daily, and South Korea's Chosun Ilbo, Yonhap and KBS, attended the forum and signed six agreements on media cooperation.

Liu and South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Lee Joon-sik gave speeches at the opening ceremony.

"It has been proved through practice that new life was injected into traditional media, and their communication capacity and influence were significantly improved, once integrated with technological and communication advantages of new media," Liu said.

He emphasized that despite a surge in the number of new media groups and internet-based news outlets, traditional media still have the advantage of being essential providers and communicators of authoritative information.

"The foundation of friendly relations between China and South Korea will be more solid if people of the two countries get to know each other more often and more deeply," Liu said.

He also called for mutual trust between media and pragmatic cooperation on the use and management of new media, noting that the huge number of smartphone users in China and South Korea had made mobile devices an essential platform for dissemination of news and information.

Zhou Zongmin, deputy editor-in-chief of Xinhua News Agency, said the media had played an important role in the development of bilateral relations, adding that it is the historical mission of the two countries' media to consolidate that relationship.

Lee Sun-geun, president of Infomax, a financial news subsidiary of Yonhap, said the media of South Korea and China should work to minimize any misunderstandings and friction between their peoples.

Wang Junsheng, a researcher of the National Institute of International Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the exchanges in the media sector between China and South Korea contributed greatly to the rapid development of their bilateral relations in recent years.

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