The National Assembly on Thursday passed a motion on ratifying the world’s largest free trade agreement(FTA) known as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP). 

With the ratification, the world-leading mega FTA is set to take effect next February. 

The RCEP involves the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN) and five other Asia-Pacific countries -- South Korea, China, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Their combined trade volume, population and nominal gross domestic product make up 30 percent of the world's total.

With the RCEP, South Korea would come to have its first FTA with Japan. 

The deal will take effect next month in ten countries, including China and Japan, which ratified the deal earlier. 

South Korea officially joined RCEP on November 15 of last year but the motion to ratify it was submitted to parliament on October 1 of this year after the government’s related preparations took some time.