South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun is scheduled to stop in Honolulu on Thursday on his way home from the International Olympic Committee meeting in Guatemala.

Roh is expected to meet with members of Hawai'i's Korean community as well as lay a wreath at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

Gov. Linda Lingle will join the president and his wife at the military cemetery, according to Lingle's office.

Koreans have a long and proud history in Hawai'i.

On Jan. 13, 1903, the first documented group of Korean immigrants to America set foot in the Islands. The SS Gaelic pulled into Honolulu Harbor, delivering 86 men, women and children to the U.S. territory.

About 7,000 other Koreans arrived in the Islands over the following two years, recruited to work on the sugar plantations across Hawai'i.

Among the prominent Korean Americans in Hawai'i are state Supreme Court Chief Justice Ronald Moon and Big Island Mayor Harry Kim.

Roh is visiting Guatemala to back Pyeongchang's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Pyeongchang is competing against Salzburg, Austria, and Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi. The winner will be selected Wednesday at an International Olympic Committee assembly in Guatemala City.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer have announced plans to travel to Guatemala to back their own countries' bids.