Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan left the nation Tuesday afternoon to attend an international security summit in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Kim told reporters at the airport before leaving that he would meet with Russian officials during the summit to ask for their cooperation following North Korea's attack on Yeonpyeong Island.

He also said that he would discuss referring North Korea’s artillery attack on Yeonpyeong to the U.N. Security Council.

On the sidelines of the two-day conference, Kim is seeking to meet bilaterally with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and foreign ministers from European nations to discuss ways to pressure North Korea to prevent further hostile behavior.

The meeting is a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the world's largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization with 56 countries as members. South Korea has been one of the OSCE's 12 cooperation partners since 1994.