The bilateral free trade agreement between China and South Korea will be effective in the second half of 2015, even as steps are underway to fast-track the proposed China-South Korea-Japan FTA, a top government official said on Monday.

According to Wang Shouwen, the assistant minister of commerce, most of the negotiations on the China-South Korea FTA have been completed and efforts are being made to iron out the technical glitches. "We expect the process to be completed by the end of this year," he said.

"China and South Korea have effectively reached a free trade agreement that would remove or sharply reduce trade and investment barriers between two nations," said Wang.