French automaker Citroen resumed sales in the local market on Thursday after a decade-long hiatus.

The company under the wing of PSA Peugeot-Citroen unveiled the DS3, a premium hatchback, in Seoul on Thursday. Hanbul Motors Corp. will take on imports of the French cars.

Citroen aims to sell up to 2,500 cars per annum in Korea, Eric Dumondelle, chief of the company’s Asia Pacific division told The Korea Herald.

“We at Citroen have a new logo, new technology and it was the right time (to come back) in the wake of Korea’s free trade pact with the EU,” Dumondelle said.

He stressed that Asia is its priority market and Korea sits among its highest.

“Citroen is known to be creative, anti-retro cars. We have 38 differentiations available with the DS3 model ― inside, outside, roof, and body colors.”

Citroen is one of many European carmakers that believe potential customers will be less likely to be local and more likely to turn to reasonably priced imported cars.”

By Kim Yon-se (kys@heraldcorp.com)