South Korea today announced it had effectively reached a free trade agreement with China that will eventually remove tariffs on over 90 percent of goods.

However, some detains of the agreement are still under discussions.

Park's office said the two countries had "effectively reached" a deal, while Xi said the negotiations had made "significant progress".

The announcement came after South Korean President Park Geun Hye met Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing.

A South Korean government statement made it clear that differences remained over a few unspecified "details" that would have to be bridged before the FTA could be signed - hopefully by the end of the year.