CRI听力:Xi Jinping's State Visit to South Korea Helps Regional Stability

Eexperts from both China and South Korea say besides bilateral relations, regional cooperation and security will also be high on the agenda of President Xi's visit, a year after South Korean President Park Geun-hye visited Beijing.

CRI's Alexander Aucott has more details.

Han Sukhee is the Associate Professor of Chinese Studies at Yonsei University in South Korea.

At a time when three-way FTA negotiations among China, South Korea and Japan face much difficulty, Professor Han says a free trade agreement between China and South Korea could serve to break the ice.

"Once we conclude FTA between South Korea and China, there might be major foundation for the potential conclusion of trilateral FTA among Korea, Japan and China."

The security on the Korean Peninsula also remains a concern for all parties involved.

Professor Yang Xiyu is the Senior Research Fellow on Korean Peninsula Affairs at the China Institute of International Studies.

In the eyes of Professor Yang Xiyu, the status quo on the peninsula is of a frayed peace.

"The peace and stability on the peninsula now is based on mutual deterrence and mutual defensive deployment. So that's not real peace. It's a fragile peace. So the two top leaders will discuss measures, on one hand, how to re-launch the course of denuclearization, and on the other hand, how to reduce the tensions and make framework for common security."

Greater security will be good news not only for Korean people on the Peninsula, but also for Chinese students who choose South Korea for higher education.

Stats from Xinhua News Agency tell us the number of Chinese students in South Korea reached a peak of more than 66 thousand in 2010. But over the last three years, the number has been dropping.

According to Professor Han, this is not all bad news.

"Ten years ago, many Chinese students who wanted to come to South Korea would be kind of not competent students. They just failed to get into colleges (in China), so they just get out of country, they came to South Korea. But recently, many Chinese students they are competent in their own country and they have a special interest in South Korea. They came to South Korea and they develop their own language skills, then also their understanding about South Korea."

Professor Han says the same changes are also taking place among South Korean students in China.

For CRI, I'm Alexander Aucott .