Seoul, Beijing agreed on visa-waiver for diplomats
By Chung Min-uck
South Korean and Chinese diplomats will be able to travel to each others’ countries without a visa for a month as the two countries reached a visa-waiver agreement, Thursday, government officials said.
The decision came following a Seoul-Beijing summit Thursday in which the two sides agreed to significantly bolster their political and security cooperation.
It marks the first visa-waiver program signed between the two nations. Notwithstanding the limited scope of period and beneficiaries, hopes are that the decision will later lead to exemption of visa for the general public of both countries.
“The agreement will come into effect later this year after going through domestic procedures,” said a government official. “We hope the process lays the cornerstone in fully exempting visas to ordinary people in the long term.”
As part of their action plans to strengthen the “internal stability” of the bilateral strategic cooperative partnership, the two countries agreed to seek all forms of exchanges between their leaders, in face-to-face meetings, by phone and letter, on a frequent basis.
A dialogue channel would be established as well between South Korea’s presidential national security chief and China's state councilor in charge of foreign affairs.
They agreed to hold foreign ministerial meetings regularly and set up a hotline, according to the joint communique adopted after the summit.
Seoul and Beijing established diplomatic relations in 1992 and, since then, the two countries have made strides in their economic and trade relations with China overtaking the U.S. and Japan as South Korea’s No. 1 trade partner.
In contrast, their political and security relations were at a stalemate due largely to disagreements over how to handle North Korea’s nuclear programs and other military provocations, and South Korea’s close relationship with the U.S. who China sees as a potential rival.