South Korea and China have shared the view that they should make concerted efforts to minimize the impact of last week's fishing boat incident on bilateral relations, Seoul's foreign ministry said Tuesday.

The skipper of an 80-ton Chinese fishing boat was shot dead Friday by a South Korean coast guard official in South Korean territorial waters in the Yellow Sea. The coast guard says that the captain violently resisted arrest over alleged illegal fishing.

Three Chinese fishermen are in detention here pending investigation, while 16 others have been arrested.

"The two countries exchanged views on the incident and shared the view that they will make efforts to prevent the incident from affecting amicable bilateral ties," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The move came at an annual meeting of director-generals from each foreign ministry's consular affairs division in Beijing on Monday, according to the foreign ministry.

Seoul has said that it will deal with the arrested Chinese fishermen in a fair manner while Beijing has called for their immediate release and lodged a strong protest over the captain's death.

It has been feared the incident could dampen bilateral ties boosted by Chinese President Xi Jinping's July visit to Seoul for a summit. The visit marked the first time that a sitting Chinese president visited South Korea before making a trip to long-time ally North Korea.

Seoul's foreign ministry said that the two sides also discussed details of a deal on consular affairs that Seoul and Beijing signed as a follow-up to the summit, as well as the recent fishing incident.

During the Monday talks, they also shared the view that visa exemptions should be expanded gradually, given an increase in the number of travelers to each country, the ministry added. (Yonhap)