AMSTERDAM - South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol laid a wreath at the Netherlands' national monument in Amsterdam on Tuesday at the start of a two-day visit during which he will also tour the headquarters of tech powerhouse ASML.

Yoon's state visit, in which he is meeting Dutch King Willem-Alexander and outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, is the first by a South Korean president since the countries established diplomatic ties in 1961.

Yoon is accompanied by a delegation from his country's major computer chip makers Samsung and SK Hynix. Both are major customers of ASML, and South Korea is ASML's second largest market by sales after Taiwan.

South Korea and the Netherlands signed a strategic partnership treaty in Seoul in 2022, recognising their common interests as "mid sized" trading nations committed to the international rule of law.

The agreement specified the countries would look for ways to coordinate between government and the private sectors "and to jointly protect and promote critical and emerging technologies including in the area of semiconductors".

  - Reuters