By Oh Hyun Woo and Lee Hana

President Moon Jae-in will hold talks with the leaders of the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leading up to and during next week's ASEAN-ROK (Republic of Korea) Commemorative Summit and the inaugural Korea-Mekong Summit.

On Nov. 17, Cheong Wa Dae Spokesperson Ko Min-jung announced that among the 10 ASEAN member countries, the sultan of Brunei will make a state visit and the heads of state from Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysia official visits to Seoul. Aside from these four countries, the remaining six will hold bilateral summits in Busan.

First, President Moon on Nov. 23 will hold a summit with Singaporean PM Lee Hsien Loong and then another with Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on Nov. 24. After the ASEAN-Korea summit, the president will hold bilateral dialogue in Seoul with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Nov. 27 and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohamad on Nov. 28.

From Nov. 25-26 in Busan, the president will host talks with Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, Indonesian President Joko Widodo, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith. 

"President Moon has visited all ten ASEAN countries in the last 2 1/2 years since his inauguration.The ten bilateral talks with the ten ASEAN heads of state this month will provide an opportunity to map out a clearer blueprint of our future cooperation," Spokesperson Ko said.

"Through the talks, we will reaffirm ASEAN's support for the peace process on the Korean Peninsula and discuss ways to strengthen cooperation to achieve peace and prosperity for the greater international community."

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