South Korea, Vietnam leaders to meet in Hanoi next week, sources say

Vietnam's president To Lam is set to meet his South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung in Hanoi next week, five people familiar with the matter said.



Lee's visit would be the first by a foreign leader to Vietnam since Lam was elected president last week, a move that allows him to combine the post with the leadership of the Communist Party, the most powerful job in the one-party state.



It would not be however Lam's first top-level meeting in his new position, as he met China's President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Wednesday.



The meeting is currently scheduled for April 23, the sources said.



Government cooperation agreements are likely to be signed. Seoul is also interested in some of Vietnam's largest infrastructure projects, such as railways and nuclear power plants, but no major decisions are expected in those areas, they said.



South Korea is the largest investor in the Southeast Asian nation in terms of accumulated capital, with output from Samsung factories alone accounting for more than one-tenth of the country's exports.