Economic and cultural exchanges have to serve the people's interests, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Friday, in response to a Republic of Korea official's suggestion that Beijing might be limiting exchanges in retaliation for Seoul's decision to deploy a US anti-missile system.

ROK Finance Minister Yoo Il-ho said on Thursday that the ROK suspected China was making "indirect responses" to the planned deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, Reuters reported.

Previously, he said that Seoul was looking into whether China's rejection of an ROK airlines' request to add charter flights was related.