South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will
visit Indonesia and Malaysia later this week to hold summit talks with the countries' leaders and attend a forum on democracy, Lee's office Cheong Wa Dae said Monday.
Heightened military tensions on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea's recent artillery attacks, however, forced Lee to curtail his trips to the Southeast Asian nations, it said.
Lee is scheduled to depart for Bali, an Indonesian resort island, at around midnight Wednesday, where he will meet bilaterally with Indonesian
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and participate in the Bali Democracy Forum.
In their summit on Thursday, Lee and Yudhoyono will "review the implementation of the development of South Korea-Indonesia strategic partnership and discuss bilateral issues, including cooperation in the defense industry and South Korean firms' foray" into the Indonesian market, Cheong Wa Dae said in a press release.
Also on the agenda are the security condition on the Korean Peninsula and ways for cooperation on the global stage, such as ASEAN and G-20, it added.
Lee will then attend the annual democracy forum, which invites a foreign leader to co-chair with Yudhoyono.
The South Korean president will head to Kuala Lumpur later in the day for a two-day state visit to Malaysia on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties, according to Cheong Wa Dae.
Lee is scheduled to meet with a group of Korean residents there Thursday night and hold a summit with Prime Minister Najib Razak the following day on promoting relations between the two nations. The two sides will also sign a
treaty on criminal and judicial cooperation.
"It would mark the first trip to Malaysia by a South Korean president since December 2005," Cheong Wa Dae said.
Lee is to fly back to Seoul Saturday morning.
Initially, the president was scheduled to leave for Indonesia Wednesday morning and return home Saturday afternoon.
Presidential aides said they rescheduled Lee's trip to make it as compact as possible to minimize his absence amid tense security conditions on the peninsula.
Seoul has been placed on high alert since the North launched a sudden barrage of artillery rounds onto a South Korean border island on Nov. 23 that killed two marines and two civilians. Officials have not ruled out the possibility of additional attacks by the communist neighbor.
"President Lee mulled canceling his overseas trips this time. But he has decided to go ahead with the visits as planned in consideration of bilateral relations with Indonesia and Malaysia," a Cheong Wa Dae official said.
He added that the Indonesian president took part in the Seoul G-20 summit in November despite his busy schedule at home in dealing with the aftermath of a volcanic eruption and other natural disasters.