S. Korea, China to speed up opening of Chinese consulate general in Jeju

SEOUL, Aug. 27 (Yonhap) -- Working-level officials of the South Korean and Chinese foreign ministries have agreed to step up efforts to set up a Chinese consulate general on South Korea's southernmost tourist island of Jeju, the Seoul ministry said Saturday.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Baik Joo-hyeon, the head of the ministry's consulate bureau, met his Chinese counterpart in Seoul on Friday for the agreement made to cater to a growing number of Chinese tourists and immigrants to the local island.
The officials also vowed increased efforts to establish a Korean consulate office in Dalian, a northeastern Chinese city.
The latest commitments were made in a follow-up to the two countries' summit meeting in Seoul in May last year, in which South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao broadly agreed to the plan.
The new consulate general, if established, would be the third of its kind here including those in the southern port city of Busan and southeastern city of Gwangju.
On the agenda for the latest working-level meeting was also a plan to waive visas for young students' group tourism between the two countries as well as measures to better protect rights of Chinese and Korean foreign residents in each others' countries and crack down on illegal smuggling, the ministry said.