China to resume issuance of short-term visas for Korean nationals on Feb. 18

Travelers bound for China are waiting for boarding at Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport Tuesday afternoon. [YONHAP]

China announced Wednesday it will lift its suspension of the issuance of short-term visas for Korean nationals starting Saturday.

The Chinese Embassy to Seoul announced through its WeChat account that the embassy and consulate general in Korea will resume the issuance of short-term visas for Korean nationals starting Feb. 18.

This comes after Korea started issuing short-term visas for people traveling from China starting Saturday as the ratio of those testing positive for Covid-19 on arrival dropped to the one percent range.

The Korean government announced last Friday that they decided to lift the suspension, which was supposed to run until the end of this month.

The Korean government suspended the issuance of short-term visas from people arriving from China on Jan. 2 after the number of people infected with Covid-19 in the country surged when the Chinese government abandoned its zero-Covid policy.

Beijing immediately retaliated by suspending short-term visas for Koreans on Jan. 10. It later suspended the issuance of transit visas.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]