* Top "Korean Wave" stars join Moon's China trip
* Xi and Moon to hold summit later on Thursday
* Moon hopes "a new age of bilateral relations will begin"
* Charm offensive includes K-Pop and TV stars
By Joyce Lee
SEOUL, Dec 14 (Reuters) - South Korean President Moon Jae-in will unveil an array of TV talent and K-Pop celebrities at events, including a state dinner, in China on Thursday as he attempts to smooth out a year of difficult diplomacy with a star-laden charm offensive.
South Korean celebrities, including some of those accompanying Moon, had been shut out of Chinese television and concert halls as relations cooled between the East Asian neighbours as they faced the threat posed by North Korea's missile and nuclear programmes.
The thorniest issue was South Korea's deployment of a controversial U.S. anti-missile system.
Moon is hoping to use his first visit to China since taking office in May to build support for a diplomatic solution to a crisis that has grown steadily through the year. Pyongyang tested its most advanced intercontinental ballistic missile on Nov. 29, which it said could put all of the United States within range, in defiance of international pressure and U.N. sanctions.
Moon kicked off his trip to China on Wednesday and spoke of the need to get bilateral economic exchanges back on track.
"It is the confidence of South Koreans and business leaders that the difficult situation of various inadequacies of cooperation between the two countries, borne out of differences in the two countries' point of view, will be shaken off - and a new age of bilateral relations will begin," Moon told a round table of Chinese and South Korean business leaders in Beijing.
Moon plans to sign a memorandum with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday in a step towards follow-up negotiations about services and investments under the South Korea-China Free Trade Agreement.
Top South Korean actress Song Hye-kyo, star of 2016's hit drama "Descendants of the Sun" and the face of many South Korean cosmetics brands, will join Moon and Xi in a state dinner later on Thursday. Song will be joined by married South Korean and Chinese actors, Choo Ja-yeon and Xiaoguang Yu.
Boy band EXO, one of the top-earning artists of major K-Pop talent agency S.M. Entertainment, will also join Moon and Song at a bilateral business event earlier on Thursday.
CELEBRITIES DROPPED
The presence of such celebrities reflects Seoul's hope to break the ice after a furious row over its deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system. China complains that the THAAD system's powerful radar can see far into its territory and does nothing to ease tensions with North Korea.