South Korea to resume issuing short-term visas for travelers from China

Seoul decided to restore short-term visas after rate of positive cases among passengers’ arrivals from China fell to 1.1% last week from 30% previously, says official

ANKARA (AA) - South Korea has also decided to resume issuing short-term visas to travelers from China, local media said on Friday.

Seoul has decided to restore short-term visas following the rate of positive cases among passengers’ arrivals from China fell to 1.1% last week from 30% previously, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing Kim Seong-ho, an Interior Ministry official.

The latest announcement from Seoul comes a day after Japanese media reported that Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's government planned to relax border controls for people arriving from China by the end of this month and to be more selective in testing passengers for COVID-19.

The East Asian nation had suspended short-term visas for travelers from China earlier last month after Beijing dumped its "zero-COVID" policy, allowing full international travel.

Besides South Korea, Japan, the US, UK, Italy, Spain, France, Morocco, Qatar, Canada, Greece, Malaysia, Finland, and the Netherlands had imposed restrictions on travelers arriving from China, including a requirement for negative COVID-19 test results.

In retaliation, China has also suspended the issuance of short-term visas to South Korean nationals for visits, business, tourism, medical, and transit purposes.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid

Kaynak:

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