South Korea has expressed gratitude for Japan's assistance in bringing home its nationals from war-stricken Israel.

A foreign ministry official in Seoul said Saturday that Minister Park Jin conveyed gratitude to his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa on behalf of the Korean government after a transport plane of the Japan Self-Defense Forces carrying evacuees from Israel arrived in Tokyo Saturday morning.

The Japanese air tanker left Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv Thursday night local time and landed at Tokyo Haneda Airport at 3:15 a.m. Saturday after stopovers in Jordan and Singapore.

The plane was carrying 60 Japanese citizens and four family members of foreign nationality as well as 18 South Koreans and one foreign family member.

The South Koreans are reportedly staying at a hotel or with an acquaintance before returning home or have moved to Narita International Airport to catch a flight back home.

The latest assistance by Tokyo is seen as a reciprocal move to Seoul's earlier gesture when it flew home from Israel a group of 51 Japanese and their families last Saturday.

Chief cabinet secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said Friday that Japan asked several countries if their nationals would board the flight as there was room on the plane, and only South Korea made the request.

While earlier thanking South Korea for its repatriation of Japanese citizens, Kamikawa also promised to provide related cooperation.

Seoul's foreign ministry said the two countries will continue close coordination to protect their nationals overseas wherever that may be amid a fast-changing global security situation.