OTTAWA (AFP) - Prime Minister Stephen Harper will visit South Korea in December, following trips to India, China, and Singapore for an APEC summit, his office said Monday.

Canada and South Korea are to co-host the Group of 20 developed and developing nations next year with summits in Muskoka, just north of Toronto, in June and in Seoul in November.

South Korea is Canada's seventh largest trading partner with two-way trade estimated at 9.8 billion dollars last year, but they remain at odds over Canadian beef imports.

In August, Canada launched a World Trade Organization challenge of South Korea's ban on Canadian beef over its concerns about a case several years ago of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease.

In May 2003, Seoul banned imports of Canadian beef after BSE was discovered in a Canadian cow.

Canadian officials have insisted Canada's beef is safe.

Before the ban, South Korea was Canada's fourth-largest beef export market, valued at 50 million dollars in 2002, according to government figures.