South Korea hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a return visit to Seoul following South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s visit to Russia this June, South Korea’s Ambassador to Moscow Woo Yoon-keun said on Monday.

"At the invitation of the Russian president, our head of state paid an official visit to Russia, the first one in the past 19 years, in June. Apart from that, he delivered his first speech in the capacity of South Korea’s president at Russia’s State Duma," he said at a gala reception on National Foundation Day.

"I hope President Putin’s return visit will continue top level diplomatic contacts," he stressed.

According to the South Korean diplomat, Seoul sets concrete tasks in its cooperation with Moscow by the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries to be marked in 2020. "Efforts are being taken to reach the following goals: to increase trade to 30 billion US dollars and bring the number of reciprocal visits up to one million," he added.