Tedros makes first official visit to South Korea since taking office; Seoul eyes global expansion of AI and biotech training hubs

President Lee Jae Myung smiles during a housing supply field meeting held Tuesday at the Incheon Gyeyang public housing district. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung smiles during a housing supply field meeting held Tuesday at the Incheon Gyeyang public housing district. [Yonhap]

President Lee Jae Myung will meet World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at Cheong Wa Dae on Wednesday afternoon to discuss ways to strengthen health and medical cooperation between South Korea and the WHO.

Cheong Wa Dae announced Wednesday that Lee will receive Tedros and hold talks on deepening bilateral health cooperation.

The visit was arranged on the sidelines of the 2026 World Bio Summit (Oct. 21–22), co-hosted by the South Korean government and the WHO, and marks Tedros' first official trip to South Korea since taking office. Tedros became the first African to lead the WHO in 2017 and has been serving a second term since 2022. He has worked to strengthen global norms for responding to infectious diseases, including steering the adoption of a pandemic accord at last year's World Health Assembly.

During the meeting, Lee plans to personally present the vision behind the government's "San Francisco AI Declaration" and its "AI Basic Healthcare Strategy."

Lee is also expected to call for close policy coordination with the WHO to ensure that the benefits of advanced health and medical technology innovation — channeled through a global AI hub and a global biotech workforce training hub — reach vulnerable nations and citizens around the world.


sunpine@heraldcorp.com