President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee left on a visit to the U.K., the U.S. and Canada on Sunday.
On arrival in London, they went to a reception at Buckingham Palace before attending the funeral of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey and expressed their condolences to King Charles.
Then Yoon will fly to New York, where he is to deliver a keynote speech at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday in front of the heads of 185 countries.
He is expected to highlight his North Korea policy and seek international support.
He also sits down with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on the sidelines of the gathering. This will be the first summit between the leaders of South Korea and Japan in two years and 10 months.
Japanese media have cast doubt on the meeting with Kishida, claiming that Tokyo remains undecided, but the presidential office here said, "We have finalized the time and place of the meeting."
The meeting with Biden is expected to focus on the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act, a package of protective measures that among other things scraps subsidies for Korean-made electric cars and car batteries made with Chinese materials.
Yoon will then fly to Canada on Thursday to meet with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before returning to Seoul.
