By Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) -South&nbsp;Korean President&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;Suk Yeol will make state&nbsp;visits to&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;Arabia and&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;on Oct. 21-26 and discuss&nbsp;business&nbsp;cooperation as well as security conditions linked to the&nbsp;Israel-Palestinian&nbsp;conflict, his office said on Thursday.
South&nbsp;Korea has serious concerns over the sharp increase in civilian casualties from the&nbsp;conflict&nbsp;and will provide aid on purely humanitarian grounds,&nbsp;Yoon's deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo told a briefing.
Yoon&nbsp;will also discuss cooperation with&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;Arabia and&nbsp;Qatar&nbsp;focused on bringing peace to the region and boosting&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea's&nbsp;national security, Kim said.
After arriving in Riyadh on Saturday on what would be the first state&nbsp;visit&nbsp;by a&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korean leader,&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;will hold&nbsp;talks with&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday and attend a luncheon, Kim said.
The meeting comes less than a year after the crown prince&nbsp;visited&nbsp;South&nbsp;Korea and discussed cooperation in the areas of energy, defence and infrastructure construction, signing investment pacts worth $30 billion with Korean firms.
South&nbsp;Korea is locked in a competition with&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;Arabia to host the World Expo in 2030 but its conglomerates are vying to participate in mega projects such as the NEOM smart city in&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;Arabia as well as to win defence contracts.
Yoon&nbsp;will attend events on bilateral investment and partnership on future technology that will highlight the growing significance of the two countries' economic relationship. On Tuesday, he will address the Future Investment Initiative forum.
A delegation of&nbsp;business&nbsp;leaders will accompany&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;on his&nbsp;Saudi&nbsp;trip, including Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee, Hyundai Motor Group Executive Chair E.S. Chung and the heads of Hanwha, GS, and HD Hyundai conglomerates,&nbsp;Yoon's office said.
In&nbsp;Qatar,&nbsp;Yoon&nbsp;will hold a summit meeting with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday and attend a&nbsp;business&nbsp;forum. About 200&nbsp;business&nbsp;people from the two countries are expected to attend the forum to discuss energy issues, including liquefied natural gas, hydrogen as well as solar power.
(Reporting by Jack Kim and Ju-min Park;Editing by Ed Davies and Alison Williams)

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South Korea's Yoon to visit Saudi, Qatar to talk Israel conflict, business