The number of foreign visitors to South Korea rose sharply in November, climbing 17.3 percent from a year earlier as the country's tourism sector continues to recover to pre-pandemic levels, official data showed Tuesday. According to figures from the Korea Tourism Organization (KTO), about 1.6 million foreign tourists visited in November, up from 1.36 million a year ago and 9.6 percent higher than the same month in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. China remained the largest source of visitors with 378,000 arrivals, followed by Japan at 363,000, Taiwan at 158,000, the United States at 133,000 and the Philippines at 60,000. While the number of Chinese tourists recovered to around 75 percent of 2019 levels, Japanese tourist arrivals surged 40.4 percent compared with the same period that year. From January to November, South Korea welcomed 17.42 million foreign tourists, a 15.4 percent increase from the same period last year and 8.6 percent above 2019 levels, the KTO said. Visitors from China accounted for 29.2 percent, or about 5.09 million, of the total. The Ministry of Culture, Sports a