South Korea's alliance with the United States is the basis for the country's relations with China, Seoul's top diplomat in Washington said Monday.

Amb. Ahn Ho-young made the remark during a parliamentary audit of his embassy as lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties voiced concern that Seoul's strengthening ties with Beijing may have negative effects on the alliance with Washington.

"Amid changes in international situations, the Korea-U.S. relations have steadily strengthened, and are in the best shape ever," Ahn said. "It is important to keep engaging with China ... but anything like that is based on the Korea-U.S. alliance."

Early this month, South Korean President Park Geun-hye attended China's muscle-flexing military parade shunned by Western leaders, leading some U.S. experts and observers to raise questions about whether Seoul is tilting too much toward Beijing at a time of growing rivalry between the U.S. and China.

But the U.S. government said it respects Park's decision to attend China's parade. It also said it's not concerned about South Korea's strengthening relations with China and that greater cooperation and dialogue between Seoul and Beijing is good for the region.

Lawmakers said Park's planned visit to Washington next month should be an occasion to reaffirm the alliance.

Ahn said next month's summit between Park and U.S. President Barack Obama is not expected to take up the issue of the possible deployment of the U.S. THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense) system to South Korea as the U.S. has not made any official request for such discussions.

Ahn also said that based on the strong alliance, Seoul and Washington are seeking a meaningful dialogue with North Korea in order to make substantial progress in efforts to prevent North Korea's nuclear capabilities from moving forward and denuclearize the North. (Yonhap)