The city of Gyeongju in South Korea's North Gyeongsang Province has been recommended as the host city candidate for the 2025 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Seoul's foreign ministry said Thursday.

The government's APEC summit host city recommendation committee held a meeting earlier in the day and selected Gyeongju, about 280 kilometers southeast of Seoul, as the candidate city to host the summit scheduled to be held next year, the ministry said.

The upcoming APEC summit is to be hosted in South Korea for the first time in 20 years since its previous one held in the southeastern port city of Busan in 2005.

The committee picked Gyeongju over two other candidates, Incheon and the southern Jeju Island, considering the city's contribution to national and regional development, as well as its cultural and tourism resources, according to the ministry.

The city, one of the nation's most popular tourist destinations, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Silla (57 BC-AD 935).

The confirmation of Gyeongju as the host city of next year's summit is expected to be made later this month. (Yonhap)