Seoul: President Lee Jae Myung will host a dinner meeting this week with foreign ambassadors and diplomats serving in South Korea, his office said Thursday. The event, to be held Friday, will be the first of its kind since Lee took office in June.
According to Yonhap News Agency, Lee will invite the ambassadors of 117 countries with resident diplomatic missions and representatives from 30 international agencies with offices in Seoul, as stated by presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung in a briefing. Other notable attendees will include special envoys sent abroad by the Lee administration, members of the parliamentary foreign affairs committee, ministers, and heads of major businesses and economic associations.
At the meeting, Lee will seek their support for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, scheduled to be held in South Korea's southeastern city of Gyeongju from Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Kang emphasized that "the meeting with the foreign diplomats was organized at an early date when compared with previous administrations," highlighting its significance as an opportunity to demonstrate both domestically and internationally that the diplomacy of the people's sovereign government is back on track.
South Korea has experienced turbulent months since former President Yoon Suk Yeol's failed martial law bid, with Lee taking office immediately after winning the June 3 presidential election without a transition period. The meeting will take place just hours before Lee attends a ceremony to commemorate his election and the 80th anniversary of Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.