A South Korean serving a prison sentence in China will be transported to South Korea for the first time.

The South Korean consulate general in Shenyang said Saturday that the South Korean convict will be transferred to a prison in South Korea on Wednesday in line with an agreement on transferring prisoners between the two countries that went into effect in 2009.

The South Korean prisoner expressed wishes to serve out his term in his homeland citing serious heart disease. He has been serving for about eight years in a Shenyang prison for a drug-related crime.

Currently, some 80 South Korean prisoners in China’s northeastern provinces of Jilin, Liaoning and Heilongjiang are hoping to be transferred to prisons in South Korea.