South Korea and China signed a pact Thursday to expand cooperation in joint film production, Seoul officials said, a move that could pave the way for facilitating South Korean movies' advance into the Chinese market.

The landmark pact was signed in Seoul by South Korea's Culture Minister Yoo Jin-ryong and his Chinese counterpart Cai Fu Chao, director of China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. The signing came after a summit between South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Under the agreement, jointly produced movies will be officially classified as both South Korean and Chinese films, according to Seoul's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

"South Korea-China co-productions, once recognized as China's homegrown films, can bypass China's limitations on foreign movie imports, so the pact would facilitate the South Korean film industry's advance into the Chinese film market," the ministry said in a statement.

"It would also boost cooperation for special effects technologies and exchanges of film industry people."

China currently has a quota system for foreign movie imports, which currently stands at 34 titles a year on a revenue-sharing basis.

South Korea and China began discussions on the film cooperation pact in August 2011 amid the Asia-wide boom of South Korea's TV dramas and films in China, a phenomenon known as "hallyu."  

The culture ministry said it will step up efforts to boost exchanges and cooperation in the cultural content industries of the two countries with the signing as an occasion. (Yonhap)