S.Korea, U.S. to hold summit in Washington on Oct. 16

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama would hold a summit in Washington on Oct. 16 after delaying the highest-level meeting in June amid the rapid spread in South Korea of the deadly Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).

The South Korean presidential office said Thursday that Park and Obama would hold their fourth summit around two months later in Washington at the invitation of President Obama.

During the summit, the two heads of state would exchange opinions about various issues of mutual interest, such as the development of U.S.-South Korea alliance, cooperation in issues about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) and cooperation in Northeast Asia's peace, stability and prosperity.

The office anticipated that the upcoming meeting would reconfirm the U.S.-South Korea alliance developing more strongly, dynamically and evolutionarily and that the summit would mark a milestone for opening a new prospect in bilateral cooperation.

President Park was originally set to make a five-day trip to the United States from June 14, but it was postponed as the country's MERS spread peaked in June when the contagion cases topped 100.

The deadly viral disease, the first case of which was found on May 20, had infected 186 people, killing 36 among them. The death toll and the contagion number have been unchanged for more than a month.

The government declared the de-facto end of the MERS spread last month. South Korea became the most MERS-contagious country outside of Saudi Arabia, where the viral disease emerged first in the world in 2012 and more than 1,000 cases have since been reported. Endi