President Yoon Suk Yeol will attend the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid, Spain, from June 29-30. He is shown here on June 7 speaking to a Cabinet meeting at the presidential office in Seoul's Yongsan-gu District. (Office of the 20th President)

By Park Hye Ri and Yoon Sojung

President Yoon Suk Yeol from June 29-30 will attend the summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Madrid, Spain.

Domestic media including Yonhap News on June 10 reported on this based on a media briefing given by a member of the presidential office's staff.

Made at the official invitation of NATO, the event will be the president's first summit diplomacy of his term.

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 Asian countries 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 will 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.

Yonhap quoted a presidential office staff member as saying, "President Yoon's participation in the NATO summit will see his first overseas trip since taking office. This will offer an important opportunity for Korea to bolster cooperation with its NATO allies and partner countries to manage the international order based on values and principles and widen Korea's role as a 'globally pivotal state.'"

hrhr@korea.kr