President Yoon Suk Yeol met with Korean residents in San Francisco on Wednesday after arriving earlier in the day to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

At the gathering, the president said the city is the starting point of Koreans’ history on the U.S. mainland, citing the passage of Koreans through San Francisco after arriving from Hawaii 120 years ago to settle in the country.

Noting that the meeting is the first item on his itinerary, Yoon said the gathering is all the more significant as it is the first time in eleven years for a South Korean president to meet with Koreans residing in northern California.

He said the history of the advancement of the South Korea-U.S. alliance is none other than the history of the development of Koreans in the U.S., stressing that those in San Francisco played a key role in such growth.

The president then asked the community to contribute to the advancement of the alliance in terms of science and technology by continuously interacting with talent across the world, noting that many members of the Korean community possess remarkable capability in IT and high-tech areas.