What gift South Korea's new president gave Xi Jinping, days after Trump received a gold crown
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung presents Donald Trump with a replica of the Cheonmachong gold crown, which he gave him as a gift, PHOTO: Mark Schiefelbein / AP / Profimedia Images
South Korea's new president presented Chinese leader Xi Jinping with the “finest” Go board during a state visit on Saturday, just days after he presented US President Donald Trump with a gold crown at a summit, Reuters reports.
Gifts given to foreign leaders are an important element of international diplomacy, but they can also be delicate, especially when comparisons are inevitable between the gifts given to the world's two most powerful men, their fierce rivals.
Xi met for the first time with South Korea's new president, Lee Jae Myung, on the final day of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit held in the historic city of Gyeongju.
Lee promised to improve relations with China, South Korea's main trading partner, and the talks came after a period marked by some tensions between the two countries.
Go, popular in countries such as China, South Korea and Japan, is a strategy game in which two players move black and white stones around a square board with the goal of conquering as much territory as possible. Its origins date back thousands of years.
The game is appreciated by artificial intelligence researchers because of the huge number of possible combinations, far greater than in games such as Western chess. According to Google, there are more possible configurations in a game of Go than there are atoms in the entire universe, Reuters explains.
The Go board was made from the precious wood of the Torreya nucifera tree, a species native to the South Korean island of Jeju, President Lee's office said.
Both leaders are passionate about the game, and when Xi visited South Korea 11 years ago, he received a set of Go stones as a gift, a detail that explains the symbolic choice of the new gift, the South Korean presidency said.
Some Go boards made of the same type of wood are sold online for prices of nearly 5 million won (about $3,500).
According to the presidential office in Seoul, Lee also presented Xi with a traditional Korean lacquer tray decorated with mother-of-pearl as a symbol of the desire to maintain friendly relations between South Korea and China.
The post-summit state dinnerLee also met with Donald Trump earlier this week ahead of the APEC leaders' meeting.
In recognition of Trump's role as a “peacemaker” on the Korean Peninsula, he was awarded the “Grand Order of Mugunghwa,” South Korea's highest honor, the presidential office announced.
Trump also received a replica gold crown with tall spikes and leaf-shaped decorations. The original was discovered in a tomb in Gyeongju, the former capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla, which ruled a third of the Korean Peninsula until the 9th century. it includes dishes popular in both countries – including dumplings, sweet and spicy fried chicken, a dish popular among Chinese tourists, and abalone with Mala sauce, typical of Sichuan cuisine, a favorite of South Koreans.
