South Korea and Britain held an inaugural meeting of a bilateral free trade agreement(FTA) committee in London on Monday.

South Korea's Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo and Britain's Secretary of State for International Trade Anne-Marie Trevelyan attended the meeting on the first anniversary of the bilateral FTA.

In the meeting, the two sides assessed the implementation of the trade pact and agreed to launch negotiations within the year to upgrade the deal. In a demonstration of intent, they agreed to set up a director-level consultative body.

In the negotiations, South Korea plans to discuss cooperation in digital trade, supply chain systems, carbon neutrality and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the bilateral FTA took effect in January 2021, the two nations experienced a 32-point-six percent jump in trade from a year earlier.