South Korea has proposed free trade talks with China to be held in January or February.

The two sides earlier agreed to begin follow-up negotiations to their free trade agreement(FTA) to include the service and investment sectors.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Paik Un-gyu on Friday made the proposal to China for the first round of talks to open early next year.

The ministry said that his Chinese counterpart Zhong Shan accepted the proposal saying that working-level preparations will begin swiftly.

On Friday, the two sides also signed two memorandums of understanding, one on strengthening economic and trade ties and another on expanding cooperation on trade remedies to better respond to trade protectionism.

The South Korea-China FTA took effect in December 2015 focused on removing tariffs on goods. 

The two nations agreed to partially open the service, investment and finance markets and launch further negotiations regarding these sectors within two years of the trade deal's implementation.