South Korea and China have held a meeting to discuss an array of issues in the fishery sector including Chinese fishermen’s illegal fishing in the Yellow Sea, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Thursday.
The two countries held a fifth round of talks at the Chinese city of Ningbo on Thursday, during which they exchanged views on how to cooperate better in the fishery field, the foreign ministry said.
Seoul has appealed to Beijing to take strong and effective measures to crack down on Chinese fishermen’s illegal fishing in waters near the tense inter-Korean maritime border off the west coast, as their illegal fishing has given enormous damage to South Korean fishermen, it added.
In return, China gave a positive response, saying that it has strengthened its crackdown on such fishing practices and will increase surveillance with attention, the ministry said.
Both sides plan to hold another round of talks in Korea in the second half.
The number of Chinese fishing boats poaching in South Korean waters came in at 92 in the January-May period, down some 60 percent from a year earlier, according to official data.
Yonhap News Agency