President Yoon Suk Yeol departed for the United States on Thursday evening to attend a trilateral summit with U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the presidential retreat of Camp David in Maryland.

The presidential plane Code One took off from Seoul Air Base in Seongnam. First lady Kim Keon-hee is not accompanying him on the trip, which came on the heels of the funeral for Yoon's father.

The South Korean leader will arrive in the U.S. late Thursday local time and hold last minute preparations with his top aides ahead of Friday’s summit.

He will travel to Camp David early the next morning and hold separate bilateral talks with Biden, followed by the trilateral summit, a luncheon and then a one-on-one with Kishida.

The three leaders are expected to discuss a vision and basic principles on three-way cooperation and joint responses to North Korea's nuclear and missile threat.

They are expected to adopt two documents called Camp David Principles and the Spirit of Camp David.

The three will hold a joint news conference at 3 p.m. Friday or 4 a.m. Saturday Korea time.

It's the first time in eight years the secluded presidential retreat is hosting foreign leaders and the first time in 15 years for a South Korean president to visit since Lee Myung-bak in 2008. 

It's also the first standalone summit between the three allies that is not taking place on the margins of a multilateral conference.