South Korea has confirmed people travelling to the nation from China will be granted 15-day visa-free stays providing they meet the requirements laid out by the Government.

The criteria includes having an entry ticket to the Olympic Games, which run from February 9 to 25.

It must have been purchased through an official Chinese travel agency, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Applicants must also be a Chinese citizen with records of arrival and departure in and from South Korea with a legal visa issued by the relevant authorities in the past five years.

Those who have criminal convictions, or have previously been found to have stayed in South Korea illegally, will not be able to apply for the waiver.

The regulations for Chinese visitors will be in place from tomorrow until the end of March next year.

The measures, which also include temporarily allowing Chinese residents to arrive by ship, come as part of a concerted drive from the Government to welcome more people to the nation for the Games amid poor ticket sales for the Olympics and Paralympics.

It is also hoped the special no-visa entry will improve often strained relations between South Korea and China.

Similar measures have also been implemented to allow visa-free travel from Indonesia, The Philippines and Vietnam.

In a recent update, Pyeongchang 2018 claimed over 50 per cent of tickets for the Olympic Games had been sold.

Just five per cent of the total tickets available for the Paralympics, scheduled to take place from March 9 to 18, have been sold.

China has won a total of 53 Winter Olympic medals, including 12 gold.