Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in South Korea on Monday, becoming the first foreign leader to visit here in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He embarked on the two-day state trip at the invitation of President Moon Jae-in, during which they are scheduled to hold summit talks. He was greeted by South Korea's Commerce Minister Moon Sung-wook at Seoul Air Base in Seongnam, just south of Seoul.

He is the first Kazhak president to travel to South Korea in five years.

In their summit at Cheong Wa Dae on Tuesday, Tokayev and Moon plan to discuss ways to promote substantive cooperation between the two countries in various fields, such as transportation, infrastructure, construction, ICT, health care and the environment.

On the occasion of his visit, the remains of Hong Beom-do, a historic Korean independence fighter, were repatriated Sunday, 78 years after his death in the Central Asian nation.

Moon formally requested the return of the remains during a meeting with Tokayev in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan in April 2019.

Tokayev plans to attend a ceremony to bestow a posthumous medal on Hong, who led Korea's fight against Japan's colonial forces in the early 1900s, and also hold a roundtable conference with local business leaders.

He had planned to make a state visit here last year but it was put off due to the coronavirus situations. (Yonhap)