A third round of bilateral talks with Thailand on opening up South Korea's rice market is set to kick off in Bangkok on Saturday.

Seoul's delegation, led by its representative to the Doha Development Agenda negotiations, Lee Jae-gil, has already left for Bangkok.

As one of the world's largest rice exporters, Thailand reportedly wants the scrapping of South Korea's current mandatory rice import quota in favor of a tariff system under which more foreign rice is allowed to enter the local market.

At the 1994 Uruguay Round of multilateral trade talks, South Korea was granted a ten-year grace period during which it was allowed to keep rice imports under four percent of domestic consumption.

According to agreements struck at those negotiations, South Korea must conclude talks on the wider opening of its rice market by the end of this year.