President Yoon Suk Yeol and first lady Kim Keon Hee on the afternoon of May 19 say farewell before boarding the presidential plane Code One at Seoul Air Base in the capital's southern suburb of Seongnam bound for Hiroshima, Japan, to attend the Group of 7 economies summit opening that day. (Yonhap News)

By Xu Aiying

President Yoon Suk Yeol on May 19 arrived in Hiroshima, Japan, to attend the Group of 7 (G7) economies summit.

He and first lady Kim Keon Hee in the afternoon boarded the presidential plane Code One at Seoul Air Base in the capital's southern suburb of Seongnam. 

The president is the nation's fourth to attend a G7 summit.

During his three-day trip through May 21, he will hold bilateral summits with the leaders of participating countries including Japan, this year's G7 chair country, Australia, the U.K., Vietnam, Indonesia and India.

His summit with Japan on May 21 will come two weeks after his last in Seoul on May 7.

President Yoon will also hold a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

The three leaders will discuss strategic measures to upgrade their trilateral cooperation a notch to jointly respond to North Korea's nuclear and missile threats, instability in regional supply chains and the energy crisis.

President Yoon will also speak at the extended G7 summit that covers global agenda like food, health, climate and energy.

He and Prime Minister Kishida will also visit a memorial stone at Hiroshima's Peace Memorial Park to pay respects to Korean victims of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city. This will be the first time for the leaders of both nations to do this together.

xuaiy@korea.kr