Korea could lift visa ban on Chinese nationals early

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo at a press conference on Friday. [YONHAP]

The Korean government could review lifting its ban on issuing short-term visas to Chinese nationals even before the end of February if Korea judges it can handle the number of Covid-19 cases coming from China, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said during a press conference Tuesday.

"We currently don't have enough data on the situation in China and all we have is the PCR test results of Chinese coming to Korea," said Han. "And as such we have to be cautious before lifting [the regulations]."

He stressed that the visa restriction is a domestic issue.

"Not only have we informed China but we are still communicating [on the issue.]"

The Korean government on Friday announced that it will extend the short-term visa restriction for another month due to concerns about a potential flood of Covid cases from China during the Lunar New Year holiday.

The restriction was implemented from Jan. 2. The few exceptions are diplomats, businesspeople and travelers involved in humanitarian work.

China has retaliated to the Korean moves by suspending the issuing of short-term visas to Korean nationals, including transit visas.

Starting Feb.1 China will be testing every single passenger arriving from Korea for Covid-19, just as Korea has been doing to every passenger arriving from China since Jan. 2.

China will also quarantining arrivals from Korea who test positive, just like Korea does with arrivals from China.

China previously lifted all mandatory testing of arrivals from Jan. 8, as well as mandatory quarantines.

The Chinese government has repeatedly demanded that the Korean government ease its visa ban, calling it discriminatory.

Despite Japan also implementing stricter entry restrictions on travelers arriving from China, the Chinese government on Sunday resumed issuing visas to Japanese tourists.

The Chinese government will permit Chinese tourists to go overseas on group tours from Feb. 6.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]