China ordered its travel firms to suspend tours to South Korea after Seoul signed a land acquisition deal to deploy a Terminal High Altitude Area Defense battery last month.

While the South Korean government emphasizes the battery is only targeting North Korea's provocations, Beijing argued the deployment will escalate tension in Northeast Asia and directly hurt its national interest.

Last year, a group of lawmakers from the Democratic Party who protested against the plan initiated by President Park Geun-hye visited China to jointly discuss the issue.

Woo emphasized China's latest ban on tours to South Korea will hurt the relationship of the two countries.

The main opposition party also urged the South Korean government to hand over the issue to the new administration, claiming the matter needs to be approved by the National Assembly. (Yonhap)