Chinese President Xi Jinping asked South Korean President Park Geun-hye to "tread carefully" over a U.S. move to deploy its advanced missile-defense system in South Korea during their July summit, two Seoul diplomatic sources said Tuesday.
Xi had raised the issue during his summit with Park in early July at a time Beijing was trying to improve relations with South Korea amid bitter territorial disputes with its Asian neighbors, including Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines. South Korea is a treaty ally of the U.S., which protected the South from aggression by North Korea and China during the 1950-53 Korean War.