Yang Jiechi, a member of the Communist Party Politburo, was meeting the ROK's new national security adviser, Suh Hoon, in the southern port city of Busan to discuss coronavirus cooperation, bilateral relations and the situation surrounding the Korean Peninsula, the ROK government said.
Yang arrived on August 21 and is to leave on August 22, the government said in a statement.
The talks come after the COVID-19 had undercut bilateral exchanges and stalled denuclearisation negotiations involving the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Suh, who took up the top security job last month after serving as intelligence chief, was to discuss the DPRK, coronavirus cooperation and a potential trip to Seoul by Chinese President Xi Jinping, presidential spokesman Kang Min-seok said this week.
Yang did not respond to a question, ahead of the meeting, on whether Xi might visit this year, according to a pool report.
The two countries resumed exchanges last month when Seoul sent a high-level diplomat for a bilateral economic meeting.
The ROK had largely managed to bring the first COVID-19 outbreak outside of China under control without major disruptions, but recent surges in cases prompted authorities to re-impose tighter distancing rules.
The ROK reported 332 new coronavirus infections as of midnight Friday, of which 315 were domestic, taking the country's tally to 17,002 with 309 death.
