A senior official at an advisory body to the Chinese government will visit South Korea this week to discuss ways to step up South Korea's relations with China, as well as Hong Kong, the foreign ministry here said Monday.

Leung Chun-ying, vice chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a political advisory body in China, is set to arrive in South Korea on Tuesday for a four-day visit, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. Leung previously served as the chief executive of Hong Kong from 2012-2017.

On Thursday, Leung will meet with Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha to talk about how to improve South Korea's relations with China and Hong Kong, as well as South Korea's hosting of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, according to the ministry.

The Chinese official is also scheduled to meet with Chung Sye-kyun, speaker of the National Assembly, and visit Gangwon Province, the host region of the Winter Games. 

"The upcoming visit by Vice Chairman Leung is expected to be a good opportunity to enhance cooperation and exchanges with China and Hong Kong, as well as to promote the PyeongChang Olympics to China and its surrounding area," the ministry said.

The visit marks the latest in a series of high-level talks between South Korean and Chinese government officials since the two countries agreed on Oct. 31 to put their bilateral feud over the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system in South Korea behind them.

Earlier this month, Kang held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, while He Yiting, executive vice president of the Party School of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, visited Seoul to inform officials here of the result of the recent ruling party congress. (Yonhap)