South Korea calls China's visa suspension 'deeply regrettable'

SEOUL (Reuters) - China's recent decision to suspend the issue of short-term visas in South Korea was "deeply regrettable", the South's Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Wednesday.

Tuesday's suspension by the Chinese embassy in South Korea was China's first retaliatory move against countries imposing COVID-19 curbs on its travellers.

"It's deeply regrettable China took such a countermeasure by entirely suspending issuance of short-term visas," Park told a news briefing, adding that South Korea still issues visas to Chinese visitors for urgent business or humanitarian purposes.

Last week, South Korea ordered a PCR test for travellers arriving from China, joining a growing list of nations adopting border curbs, amid concern over infections after China abruptly ended its stringent "zero-COVID" policy.

(Reporting by Soo-hyang Choi; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)