1. At the invitation of the Republic of Korea Foreign Ministry, a 19-member Chinese delegation will visit the country from March 12 till 16 during the PyeongChang Winter Paralympic Games for a future-oriented bilateral exchange project. The delegation will be comprised of working-level officials of thirteen Chinese provinces, including Liaoning, Jiangsu, Shaanxi, Hubei and Hainan -- officials who handle exchanges between provincial governments of the ROK and China.

2. Pursuant to the agreement between the Presidents of the ROK and China, the former’s Foreign Ministry has held since 1999 an invitation program for Chinese provincial governments’ middle-level officials who handle affairs in various areas, such as political matters, media and culture. The forthcoming round will mark the first of its kind since the launch of the Moon Jae-in government.

3. The Chinese delegation will visit the Foreign Ministry and Changdeok-gung (palace) and enjoy traditional Korean culture in Seoul. The group will then travel to Gangneung, where they will watch an ice hockey game and visit the PyeongChang Winter Olympics promotional hall, experiencing the excitement of the Pyeongchang Winter Paralympics.

4. The purpose of the future-oriented ROK-China exchange project being to offer working-level officials of Chinese provincial governments opportunities to have first-hand experiences in and understand diverse aspects of Korea, the forthcoming visit of the Chinese delegation is expected to help to further boost exchanges between provincial governments of the two countries.

* unofficial translation