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ARIRANG NEWS 20:00 South Korea and China strike a free trade agreement... with both leaders of the two countries hailing the agreement and calling for deeper level of bilateral cooperation. The leaders of China and Japan hold their first face-to-face talks on the sidelines of the APEC summit on Monday. Tokyo calls the summit the first step in improving bilateral ties... while Beijing calls on Tokyo to do more to mend trust with its neighboring countries. And we analyze what′s behind North Korea′s decision to release two American detainees over the weekend. Happy Monday, everyone. Welcome to Arirang News. I′m Kang Chery. Title: Leaders of Korea, China announce conclusion of FTA, to discuss FM meeting with Japan We start with South Korea and China ending two-and-a-half-years of free trade negotiations. That announcement was confirmed during a one-on-one between President Park Geun-hye and Chinese leader Xi Jinping... ahead of the official opening of the APEC summit. The two leaders also discussed the prospects of a three-way foreign ministers′ meeting with Japan. Choi You-sun files this report from Beijing. The leaders of Korea and China, meeting on the sidelines of the APEC Summit in Beijing, made a long-awaited announcement regarding their bilateral free trade agreement. "I′m happy to announce the actual conclusion of Korea and China′s two-year-long FTA negotiations in time for today′s summit talks." The two presidents then talked about how the Korea-China FTA will be welcomed by the global economy, currently experiencing a delayed recovery and low growth. "I hope that the two sides will keep pushing for continuous and in-depth development in bilateral exchanges and cooperation." Seoul and Beijing say they will remove tariffs on more than 90 percent of their previously-agreed products over the next 20 years. And rice, a super-sensitive product for Korean farmers, has been excluded altogether. Korea′s presidential office says compared to all the bilateral FTAs it has with other countries,... this one contains fewer agricultural products subject to tariff removal. "With its 13th bilateral FTA, Korea has secured free trade with pretty much all of the world′s major economies, namely the U.S., the EU, ASEAN and China, further bolstering its global trade network." Shifting gears to regional security, Presidents Park and Xi agreed that they should look into a tripartite foreign ministers′ meeting with Japan before the year′s end. Historical and territorial differences in Northeast Asia have soured ties and at times caused tensions. On North Korea, Beijing said it clearly opposes Pyongyang′s nuclear development program, and that it abides by UN Security Council resolutions against the regime. The two presidents then expressed a need to seek creative and diverse ways to bring North Korea back to the six-nation denuclearization talks. Choi You-sun, Arirang News, Beijing. Title: Korea-China FTA: det