President Lee Jae-myung on the 7th, regarding China's "hanhanryeong" (restrictions on Korean pop culture), said that he has told the working-level departments to hold concrete consultations, so "actual consultations will take place (soon)."
At 1 p.m. (Korea time) that day, Lee held a press briefing with the traveling press corps at the Shanghai Press Center in China and made the remarks.
Asked whether the hanhanryeong could be normalized on the occasion of this visit to China, Lee said, "It is an agenda item that is already long-standing, and the Chinese government has said there is no hanhanryeong."
He added, "Within the possible scope, working-level consultations will be resolved gradually, step by step, in an orderly and healthy manner," noting, "Because the nature of a socialist system is that it cannot do things indefinitely, we also need to understand their position that they cannot leave it unattended."
Lee also said, "President Xi Jinping said that 'fruit falls when it is ripe.' That is the precise expression," adding, "We should not rush and need concrete consultations. We also spent a long time at zero, so it can be resolved smoothly in stages."