President Yoon Suk-yeol will leave for Madrid, Spain late this month to attend the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) slated for June 29~30.
At the official invitation of NATO, the event will be the President Yoon's first summit diplomacy of his term, a member of the presidential office's staff said.
Launched in 1949, NATO is a security alliance led by the U.S. and European countries. This will be the first time for the group to invite the leader of Korea, a non-member country, to take part in the summit.
Heads of state from Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand have been invited to the summit. Also invited are the leaders of Sweden and Finland, both of which want to join the alliance, Ukraine and Georgia.
In 2006, Korea became a global partner of NATO and recently joined the latter's Cooperative Cyber Defense Center of Excellence.
During the summit, President Yoon is scheduled to attend a session with leaders from 30 NATO member and partner countries. The partner states share cooperative relations with the alliance through participation in NATO drills or sharing information.
On the sidelines of the summit, he will also hold bilateral talks with leaders of key European countries.
