South Korea and Russia agreed to work toward early activation of their treaty on joint maritime search and rescue during a recent consular affairs meeting, the foreign ministry in Seoul said Wednesday.

The director at the South Korean foreign ministry's overseas Koreans and consular affairs bureau Kim Wan-joong held a meeting with his Russian counterpart Yevgeniy Ivanov in Moscow a day earlier, it said. The meeting was the annual consultation gathering to discuss consular matters.

In the latest talks, the officials agreed to increase efforts to put their treaty on joint maritime search and rescue into force within the year, the ministry said in a statement, referring to the pact signed by the two countries' presidents in September.

Reflecting recent growth in travelers between the two countries, the two sides also agreed to increase cooperation in further smoothing out immigration processes, according to the statement.

A visa waiver pact between Seoul and Moscow went into effect in January 2014, which pushed up the annual number of travelers between the countries from about 230,000 in 2013 to an estimated 400,000 in 2016, the statement showed.

The officials also agreed on ways to allow enhanced consular services in each other's country, including permitting speedy consular visits for citizens who are arrested or detained in the other country. (Yonhap)