SEOUL, July 18 -- South Korea decided Friday to open its rice market to imports next year on conditions that super-high rate of tariffs will be imposed on imported rice and special safeguard will be levied on excessive rice imports. "The conclusion was drawn as the rice tariffication is the best, inevitable option for the rice industry's future," Lee Dong-phil, minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, told reporters after deciding on it during the economy ministers' meeting.

Lee vowed to protect the country's rice industry by imposing the highest possible rate of tariffs, probably 300-500 percent, on imported rice within the permissible range of the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreement.

The minister also promised to prevent an excessive import of foreign rice in advance by levying special safeguard on it.

Under the government schedules, the South Korean rice market will be opened completely from Jan. 1 in 2015.

South Korea has been exempted from liberalizing its rice market for 20 years from 1995 due to the 1994 Uruguay Round of trade negotiations at the WTO. The exemption is set to expire by the end of this year.