South Korean President Park Geun-hye decided on Wednesday to delay her planned visit to the United States as the number of Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) infection cases topped 100, just three weeks after the first case was identified on May 20.
Senior presidential press secretary Kim Sung-woo told a press briefing here that President Park has decided to postpone next week's trip to the United States to contain the MERS spread as early as possible for people's safety.
Park, according to a Xinhua report, was scheduled to make a five-day visit to the United States on Sunday and hold a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama on June 16.
South Korea has become the most MERS-contagious country outside of Saudi Arabia, where the disease emerged first in 2012, and more than 1,000 cases have since been reported.
