President Moon Jae-in spoke with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, and said he would send a delegation to Beijing to discuss friction over a U. S. antimissile system.
SEOUL, South Korea — The leaders of South Korea and China moved on Thursday to mend ties that have been strained by the deployment of an American missile-defense system in South Korea.
During a congratulatory call by President Xi Jinping of China to Moon Jae-in, South Korea’s newly minted president, Mr. Moon revealed his plans to send a delegation to Beijing to resolve the dispute over the system, which China views as a threat to its security, Mr. Moon’s office said.
Mr. Xi also asked Mr. Moon to visit Beijing, Mr. Moon’s office said.
Mr. Moon, a liberal, had criticized the system, known as the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or Thaad. His conservative predecessor had agreed to its deployment, saying it was needed to protect South Korea against a growing ballistic-missile threat from the North.
Thaad is one of the thorniest diplomatic issues the new South Korean leader faces. If he asks the United States to withdraw the defense shield, which became operational last week, he risks rupturing South Korea’s close alliance with the United States and looking as if he is succumbing to Chinese pressure.
Despite Thursday’s overture, it will not be easy for Mr. Moon to reverse the decision on Thaad, especially since it has already been deployed in the country, analysts said, including those who worked as policy advisers for Mr. Moon when he was a candidate.
Rather, they said, Mr. Moon will try to persuade China that it should help rein in North Korea’s provocative behavior until both the South and the United States decide the system is no longer necessary.
In a call with President Trump on Wednesday, Mr. Moon pledged to strengthen his country’s alliance with Washington, calling it “the foundation of our diplomacy and national security.”
Many of Mr. Moon’s liberal supporters opposed the Thaad deployment, accusing Washington of foisting a weapons system on South Korea that they say is part of a broader American strategy of containing China with an antimissile shield. Mr. Trump angered them further recently by demanding that South Korea pay $1 billion for the system.
At the same time, the Thaad system has led to a deep schism in relations between Beijing and Seoul, and it has prompted widespread boycotts in China of popular South Korean brands. China is South Korea’s largest trading partner by far.
“I am well aware of the concern and fear of the Chinese about the Thaad deployment, ” Mr. Moon told Mr. Xi, according to Yoon Young-chan, the South Korean leader’s spokesman. “I hope both countries can understand each other better on this and will soon open a channel of communication.”
During his 40-minute conversation with the Chinese leader, Mr. Moon said he would send separate delegations to Beijing to discuss the Thaad dispute and North Korea’s nuclear threat. He also asked Mr. Xi to help end the Chinese boycott of South Korean goods.
“It will be easier to resolve the Thaad issue when North Korea doesn’ t do any more provocations, ” Mr. Moon said, according to his aide.
He also called for dialogue with the North, emphasizing that the goal of sanctions must be to bring the country back to the negotiating table. Mr. Xi agreed, according to Mr. Moon’s office.
North Korea appeared to make an overture of its own on Thursday, suggesting in the state-run news media that the two Koreas expel foreign influence from the Korean Peninsula and work together for reunification.
It then repeated a longstanding demand that South Korea and the United States stop their joint military exercises and withdraw American troops from the South.
“The North and South must respect each other, hold hands together and open a new chapter for better relations and national reunification, ” said a commentary carried by the North’s official Workers’ Party newspaper, Rodong Sinmun. “The North and the South must ease military tensions and resolve all issues through dialogue and negotiations.”
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have ebbed since the joint United States-South Korean military exercises ended late last month without major provocations, like a nuclear test, from North Korea.
North Korean officials met with a group of American experts, including former government officials, this week in Oslo. Although Washington asserts that it does not take part in the talks — the so-called Track 2 dialogue — North Korea and the United States use the informal setting as a way to explore each other’s intentions.
China’s state-run news media also portrayed the Xi-Moon call as conciliatory, saying Mr. Xi had reminded Mr. Moon of the friendly relations between China and South Korea since the establishment of diplomatic ties 1992.
China views Mr. Moon as a leader who will be far easier to deal with on North Korea than his predecessor, Park Geun-hye, who was impeached and ousted as p resident.
“I have never met you, but I have been watching you with great interest, ” Mr. Xi told Mr. Moon, according to the South Korean leader’s office. “I have been greatly impressed by your unusual personal background, thoughts and viewpoints.”
Mr. Moon, a former student activist and human rights lawyer, served in the government of Roh Moo-hyun, the South Korean president from 2003 to 2008, who promoted dialogue and economic exchanges with North Korea.
While the Chinese news media did not specifically say that Thaad had been discussed, the context was clear in a statement by CCTV, the national broadcaster.
“It is hoped the new government of South Korea would pay high attention to China’s major concerns and take practical action to promote the healthy and stable development of bilateral relations, ” it said.
China would most likely be willing to work out a compromise on the deployment of the missile defense system, said Cheng Xiaohe, associate professor of international relations at Renmin University of China. It was probably unrealistic to expect South Korea to scrap the missile system entirely, he said.
Mr. Moon also held a 25-minute phone conversation with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan on Thursday. The two leaders agreed to hold a summit meeting soon, both sides said.
Mr. Abe called on South Korea to uphold a December 2015 agreement in which the two countries announced what they called at the time a “final and irreversible” settlement on the issue of “comfort women” — a euphemism for Koreans forced into sexual slavery for Japan’s World War II army.
