Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha met with a senior Chinese official in Seoul on Thursday and discussed Korean Peninsula affairs and bilateral relations.

Li Hongzhong, a member of the Chinese Communist Party's politburo and party secretary in the city of Tianjin, arrived in Seoul on Wednesday.

During the closed-door talks, the two officials are believed to have discussed cooperation toward establishing a peace regime on the peninsula and ways to strengthen bilateral exchanges.

Li, considered a confidant of President Xi Jinping, is visiting Seoul as part of the South Korean Foreign Ministry's project of inviting prominent figures from China.

The project launched in 2005 in efforts to solidify bonds with Chinese leadership made little headway in the past two years because of Beijing's retaliation over Seoul's deployment of the U.S.’ THAAD antimissile system.