Chinese Vice Premier Li Keqiang could visit South Korea this year as part of high-level exchange visits between the two countries, a diplomatic source said Friday.
Seoul has extended an invitation to Li, and China is positively considering the offer, the source said.
"After the relations between the two countries were upgraded to the strategic cooperative partnership, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (of the Communist Party of China) is supposed to visit South Korea every year," the source said.
As President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and Vice President Xi Jinping have already visited Seoul, Vice Premier Li is likely to be the next visitor, he said.
Li is the seventh ranked member of the Politburo Standing Committee and is expected to rise to premiership in the next meeting of the National People's Congress in 2012.