Yoon makes surprise visit to Ukraine to meet Zelenskyy

WARSAW, Poland -- President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee are in Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a highly secretive visit made after the Korean president's official visit to Poland, the presidential office said Saturday.

The couple arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning, and traveled to Bucha, a town on the outskirts of Kyiv where Russian troops carried out atrocities early on in the war. He also visited nearby Irpin, where civilian areas were subjected to concentrated missile attacks during the initial invasion.

Yoon is to visit a memorial dedicated to the victims of the war, and is set to hold a summit with the Ukrainian leader later on.

Yoon has repeatedly been invited by Ukraine.

The presidential office accepted Ukraine’s offer of Yoon’s visit believing that the invitation conveys “the country’s expectation on South Korea’s role in the war in Ukraine,” a senior presidential official said.

He added that Yoon made his decision to visit the country after much deliberation on security, safety and necessity of the visit.

The two are expected to discuss security cooperation and reconstruction efforts.

They held their first summit on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, in May.

The visit came after Yoon wrapped up his official visit to Poland. Before that, he was in Lithuania to attend the NATO Summit as an observer.