The South Korean government held its first consular meeting with a South Korean missionary who has been detained in Russia on espionage charges.

An official at Seoul's foreign ministry said the South Korean Embassy in Moscow conducted the consular meeting on Monday with the detainee, identified by his surname Baek, but declined to elaborate further. The official said Seoul will continue to provide necessary consular support.

The meeting took place around three months after Baek was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service(FSB) in the far eastern city of Vladivostok in January.

Baek, who had been providing humanitarian assistance to North Korean laborers in Russia's far eastern Primorsky and Khabarovsk Krai for nearly a decade, is currently being held at a detention center in Moscow.

The Russian foreign ministry reportedly notified the South Korean embassy last Thursday that preparations for the consular meeting had been completed and that the visit could take place early this week.