South Korea and New Zealand will hold a new round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement this week, the Trade Ministry said Tuesday.

The two countries will seek to make progress on all remaining issues, officials said.

The fresh round of FTA negotiations, the sixth of their kind, will be held in Seoul from Wednesday to Friday, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy.

“At the upcoming round of negotiations, the two sides will seek to reach a compromise on all remaining issues in the service and investment sectors, as well as in customs and country of origin,” the ministry said in a press release.

The negotiations for a South Korea-New Zealand FTA were resumed last month after a near four-year hiatus since May 2010.

The upcoming round of FTA talks may become a major turning point when considering the fact that South Korea concluded its negotiations with Canada for a separate bilateral FTA only about five months after they were resumed following a five-year hiatus. (Yonhap)