China’s recent decision to suspend the issue of short-term visas in South Korea was “deeply regrettable”, the South’s Foreign Minister Park Jin said on Wednesday. “It’s deeply regrettable China took such a countermeasure by entirely suspending issuance of short-term visas,” Park told a news briefing, adding that South Korea still issues visas to Chinese visitors for urgent business or humanitarian purposes. (https://neuters.de/world/asia-pacific/south-korea-calls-chinas-visa-suspension-deeply-regrettable-2023-01-11/) Tuesday’s suspension by the Chinese embassy in South Korea was China’s first retaliatory move against countries imposing COVID-19 curbs on its travellers. Last week, South Korea ordered a PCR test for travellers arriving from China, joining a growing list of nations adopting border curbs amid concern over infections, after China abruptly ended its stringent “zero-COVID” policy.