The foreign ministry plans to send the consul from South Korea’s Embassy in Yangon to Mandalay to provide support, including daily necessities, for South Koreans hit by the massive earthquake in Myanmar, which also impacted the Thai capital of Bangkok.

The ministry announced its decision Monday, saying the deputy consul will head to Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, which was also impacted by the quake, to distribute essential supplies and offer necessary consular assistance to South Korean residents in the area. 

No South Korean casualties have been reported as of Monday.

On Sunday, a consul had already been dispatched to Mandalay, located near the quake’s epicenter, to check on the safety of South Korean nationals and distribute basic items such as toothpaste and toothbrushes.

Regarding the possible dispatch of a relief team, a foreign ministry official said the ministry is currently evaluating the situation on the ground. 

The official added that any decisions will be made after comprehensively considering the extent of the damage, requests from the affected country, and the responses of other major nations.

Some two-thousand South Koreans are believed to be living in Myanmar, including some 17-hundred in Yangon, the largest city in the Southeast Asian country, and roughly 70 in Mandalay, its second-largest city. 

The ministry estimates that there are some 20-thousand South Koreans living in Thailand, including around 12-thousand in Bangkok, roughly four-thousand in Chiang Mai and about 260 in Chiang Rai. 

Local diplomatic missions are continuing to assess the situation through coordination with authorities in Myanmar and Thailand, as well as Korean communities in the region.