Chinese special envoy Zhang Zhijun is in South Korea for a three-day visit and is expected to meet with President-elect Park Geun-hye on the future bilateral ties Thursday.

Zhang, also a vice foreign minister, arrived in South Korea on Wednesday and is expected to deliver letters by Chinese President Hu Jintao and Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China, to Park, who will take office next month.

Zhang's visit aims to improve bilateral strategic partnership after Park takes office, Shi Yuanhua, the director of the Center for Korean Studies at Shanghai-based Fudan University, told the Global Times.

"Zhang's visit will promote Park's new government holding a balanced diplomatic policy between China and the US," Shi said.

As well as meeting with Park, Zhang's visit will also feature talks with South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan on the situation on the Korean peninsula after North Korea launched its long-range rocket last month.

South Korea and the US will submit an application to the UN Security Council for further sanctions on North Korea this week, earlier reports from South Korean media said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un expressed a willingness to end conflict with South Korea in an unusual televised address days earlier, and Park pledged to mend ties with the North on the campaign trail.

Shi said that the peninsula's situations will still depend on the mutual trust between the two Koreas, and China would like them to return to the Six-Party Talks to solve the issues.