President Lee to host dinner meeting with foreign ambassadors
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a meeting at the former presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, in Seoul, to receive a report of the State Affairs Planning Advisory Committee, launched to better address the Lee government's key policy tasks, on Aug. 13. Yonhap
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.
Lee will invite the ambassadors of 117 countries with resident diplomatic missions here and representatives from 30 international agencies with offices in Seoul, presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a briefing.
Other 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.
"The meeting with the foreign diplomats was organized at an early date when compared with previous administrations," Kang said. "It will be an opportunity to show both at home and abroad 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.