At the invitation of President Xi Jinping, the Republic of Korea President Park Geun-hye will visit China from Thursday to Sunday. The visit to China will be Park's second overseas trip since she took office in February; her first was to the United States. This breaks the order established by her predecessors who all visited the US first, followed by Japan, China and Russia.

Park is visiting China ahead of Japan, as it is more of a priority in the ROK's foreign policy for a number of reasons.

First, China is playing an ever more important role in resolving the Democratic People's Republic of Korea' nuclear issue.