South Korean President Park Geun-hye arrived in London on Monday for a four-day state visit that includes an elaborate ceremonial welcome at Buckingham Palace, meetings with Queen Elizabeth II and summit talks with Prime Minister David Cameron.
Park is the second South Korean president to make a state visit to Britain after the late President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004. Britain invites only about two foreign leaders for state visits to the country a year, officials said.
A slew of events are set for Tuesday, beginning with a welcoming ceremony at Buckingham Palace. Park will also attend a lunch hosted by the queen and a groundbreaking ceremony for the first Korean War monument in Britain to mark the 60th anniversary of the end of the Korean War and the 130th anniversary of relations between the two countries.
Britain fought alongside South Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War.
Park also plans to visit Parliament for a meeting with some 100 lawmakers and separate talks later in the day with British Labor Party leader Ed Miliband, and Liberal Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. The Liberal Party is the coalition partner of Cameron's Conservative Party.
The queen is scheduled to host a state banquet for Park on Tuesday evening.
On Wednesday, Park plans to take part in an economy and trade joint committee meeting, and a forum of CEOs before holding summit talks with Cameron later in the day. The two are expected to discuss economic cooperation, global issues like cyber security and climate change, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Other events set for later in the day include a visit to Imperial College London, a meeting with South Korean residents, a special screening for Korean movies and a visit to the London financial district.
Officials said the two sides plan to sign a string of memorandums of understanding on the sidelines of Park's visit. Many of them will be about bolstering financial cooperation between the two countries.
London is the second leg of Park's three-nation European trip, which already took her to France for summit talks with French President Francois Hollande. After London, she plans to visit Belgium for two days. (Yonhap News)
