South Korean President Moon Jae-In spoke to the leaders of China and Japan on Thursday, hours after a telephone call with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump happened, officials and reports said, as he began shaping his approach to the nuclear armed North.
The new South Korean president painted himself as the antidote to Park's corrupt, authoritarian administration.
Congratulating Moon on his election as South Korean president, Xi said that China and South Korea are close neighbors as well as important players in the region.
Mr Moon had a 40-minute conversation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, his spokesman Yoon Young-Chan told reporters, with the two agreeing denuclearising Pyongyang was a "common goal" between them. China would like to "preserve these achievements obtained through great effort", Xi said.
Moon expressed his hope to visit Trump and Xi in the near future, pledging cooperation with both in denuclearizing North Korea.
The son of North Korean refugees, Moon also takes over the leadership mantle amid rising tensions on the Korean peninsula over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
Mr Xi officially invited Mr Moon to visit Beijing, Mr Yoon added.
The deployment of the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defence System (THAAD) in the South has angered China, Seoul's major trading partner, which sees the system's powerful radar as a threat to its security.
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Exit polls in South Korea's presidential election show that liberal human rights lawyer Moon Jae-in expected to win today's vote.
The White House said Trump and Moon "agreed to continue to strengthen the alliance and to deepen the enduring friendship between our two countries".
"The North Korean situation is a very, very unsafe one for South Korea, for Japan, frankly for China and for the rest of the world". During the campaign, Moon promised to address the systemic problems that led to Park's impeachment, while also signalling he will do more to ease regional tensions with its isolated neighbor to the North, North Korea.
Moon also received similar congratulatory calls from Japanese and Indian leaders on Thursday.
The South Korean statement said Trump said North Korea's nuclear problem was hard, but one that could be resolved.
The call also touched on a controversial 2015 agreement over compensating South Korean women forced into sexual slavery by Japan's military in World War II, Moon's office said.
The new president is likely to have a tough diplomatic path to tread in his approach to North Korea, which has vast artillery forces trained on Seoul.
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