1. The fourth consular consultation between the Republic of Korea and Kazakhstan took place in the latter country’s capital of Astana on April 26, co-chaired by Ambassador for Overseas Koreans and Consular Affairs Han Dong-man and Director of the Department of Consular Services Ardak Madiev of the Foreign Ministries of the ROK and Kazakhstan, respectively.

※ The ROK-Kazakhstan consular consultation is held in the two countries on a rotational basis. Its third round took place in Seoul on May 21, 2014.

2. At the meeting, the two sides reviewed the progress in the implementation of the bilateral Agreement on the Mutual Waiver of Visa Requirements for Holders of Ordinary Passports. In addition, they agreed to work together to improve convenience of the other country’s nationals on immigration-related matters and thereby to boost people-to-people exchanges between the two countries; and to ensure the safety and to protect the rights and interests of their nationals living in each other’s countries.

° [The bilateral Agreement on Temporary Labor Activities of their Nationals within the Framework of Intra-Corporate Transfer] The ROK delegation asked the Kazakh government to issue visas valid for up to three years to Korean entrepreneurs in Kazakhstan pursuant to the bilateral Agreement on Temporary Labor Activities of their Nationals within the Framework of Intra-Corporate Transfer concluded in April 2016. The Kazakh side, accepting the ROK’s request, agreed to take measures necessary for implementing the Agreement.

※ The aforementioned ROK-Kazakhstan Agreement calls for issuing visas valid for up to three years to workers from each other’s countries subject to intra-corporate transfer and assigned to branch offices or affiliates in the two countries. However, the Kazakh government has been issuing visas good for only one or two years.

° [Ensuring the safety and protecting the rights and interests of the nationals living in each other’s countries] The ROK side asked the Kazakh government to allow the ROK national imprisoned in Kazakhstan to be tried in a swift and fair manner and to promptly arrest the mugger(s) who had attacked an ROK national. The Kazakh responded that it will relay the ROK’s request to the Prosecutor's Office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in an effort to cooperate actively with the ROK.

° [Treaty for the transfer of sentenced persons] The two sides agreed to reach an agreement on the text of an ROK-Kazakhstan treaty for the transfer of sentenced persons at an early date and formally sign the accord during a high-level official’s visit to the other country in 2017.

° [Boosting medical tourism and curtailing the number of illegal Kazakhstani residents in the ROK] At the proposal of the ROK delegation, the two sides agreed to hold a meeting among their embassies in each other’s countries and their tourism agencies to seek ways to curtail the number of illegal Kazakhstani residents in the ROK as well as to promote bilateral cooperation on medical and other forms of tourism. The two sides also agreed to establish a hotline between their immigration agencies to crack down on illegal job brokers.

3. Given the existence of bilateral consular issues and the importance of their strategic partnership, the two sides agreed to hold their fifth consular consultation in Seoul or on the sidelines of the fourth meeting of the Global Consular Forum (GCF) in 2018.


* unofficial translation