S. Korea to host special summit with ASEAN leaders in December

South Korean President Park Geun-hye will host a special summit with leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) later this year in the southern port city of Busan, president office Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday.

The special summit will be held from Dec. 11 to 12 to mark the 25th anniversary of the dialogue between the two sides, the presidential office said in a statement.

The office said South Korea and ASEAN have made great strides in boosting bilateral ties since the two sides set up the dialogue mechanism in 1989.

The Southeast Asian bloc is comprised of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Singapore and Vietnam.

ASEAN became South Korea's second-biggest trade partner, and the second-largest destination for overseas investment.

Trade between the two sides reached 134.3 billion U.S. dollars in 2013, when South Korea spent 3.8 billion dollars on investment in the Southeast Asian nations. South Korea received construction orders worth 14.3 billion dollars from the ASEAN members.

The office said it will strengthen the South Korea-ASEAN strategic partnership further through the special summit.

The two sides signed a free trade pact in 2009, and upgraded their relations to the strategic partnership a year later.