South Korean President Park Geun-Hye is heading for a summit in China on Wednesday to strengthen ties with Beijing and to "attain the goal of North Korea's denulcearisation."
The South Korean president will look to exploit China's increasing frustration with its old ally North Korea, with whom the relationship was once known described as close as "lips and Teeth," by Mao Zedong, reported AFP.
The president on Monday told senior officials that her priority in Beijing would be to "harden" the ties between Seoul and Beijing in a bid to denuclearize the Pyongyang government.
Many officials in Seoul see the time as ripe for a re-calibration of the Seoul-Beijing-Pyongyang axis.
"China has traditionally emphasized the need to keep North Korea stable, while trying to solve the nuclear issue," said Choi Woo-Seon, a professor at the state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy.
"But the two issues are actually sometimes contradictory and these days China's position is gradually moving closer to the position of the US and South Korea," said Choi Woo-Seon.
In bid to put an end to Pyongyang's nuclear and missile tests, Washington and Seoul in recent months have pressured Beijing to push at its ally North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program and confrontational stance
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, as well as the U.S. government recently praised the new Beijing government under the leadership of Xi Jinping for distancing itself from Pyongyang in recent times.
In line with the U.N. sanctions, the Beijing government recently restricted Pyongyang's financial operations in China, which many say are the main source of fund for its nuclear weapons program.
