The Foreign Ministry says that some 120 ethnic Koreans living in Uzbekistan will visit South Korea next week.

The foreign ministry said the trip will take the group around the Gyeongbok Palace, the Independence Hall of Korea, and the 63 building, a Seoul landmark. The group includes an 84-year-old former senator of Uzbekistan. They are being sponsored by South Korean companies doing business in the Central Asian nation.

Many of the first-generation Koreans living in Uzbekistan originally moved to Siberia for economic opportunities there, but were forced by the Soviet Union to move to Central Asia when Stalin was in power.