President Moon Jae-in departed for China on Monday for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
 
Moon left from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province, at 9:25 a.m.
 
Moon will sit down for talks with Xi later in the day in Beijing, the first talks following the previous session held in Osaka, Japan, on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in June.
 
Moon is expected to ask China to play a role in persuading North Korea to refrain from provocation ahead of the year-end deadline set by the North for the United States to show more flexibility in denuclearization talks.
 
On Tuesday morning in the southwestern Chinese city of Chengdu, Moon, Abe and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang plan to hold their first trilateral summit since the previous one in Tokyo in May last year.
 
In the afternoon, President Moon is scheduled to hold separate bilateral talks with Abe. The two sides are likely to discuss ways to normalize the strained relations of the two nations, addressing Tokyo's export restrictions against South Korea and a military information sharing deal.