South Korea is seeking to dispatch government officials to Syria's neighboring countries in the coming months to assess the situation in a bid to prevent its citizens from illegally entering the Middle Eastern country, government sources said Wednesday.
  

The government is considering sending officials to countries bordering Syria, such as Turkey, as early as March to seek cooperation on border control as extreme militant group the Islamic State has become violent, they added.
  

"The government is reviewing the dispatch of officials to check the safety of Korean residents and companies in the Middle East as security concerns are rising in countries like Syria, Yemen and Iraq," the foreign ministry said. It did not specify when and how many countries the officials will visit.
  

The move came as a South Korean teenager who vanished in Turkey last month, is presumed to have joined IS after crossing into Syria. The nation's spy agency said Tuesday that the teen has been receiving training there.
  

Countries that include Turkey and Iraq have been used as the main gateways by aspiring foreign terrorist fighters to cross into Syria to join IS.
  

The 18-year-old, identified only by his surname Kim, disappeared on Jan. 10 during a trip to the southern Turkish city of Kilis, situated near the border with Syria.
  

Since Kim's disappearance, the Seoul government has requested that Syria's neighboring countries beef up border control to prevent South Koreans from traveling to Syria and other nations put on Seoul's travel ban list.
  

Seoul has imposed travel bans on six countries -- Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen.
  

South Korea's foreign ministry said it held a meeting with 15 local travel agencies earlier in the day to seek cooperation on safe travel for its citizens.
  

"Travel agencies are advised not to sell travel packages involving countries near Syria as there is a high chance that local travelers can become a target of terrorists there," Lee Myung-yul, director-general at the foreign ministry's consular affairs bureau, said at the start of the meeting.
  

Meanwhile, the Seoul government has held a series of meetings as part of moves to implement the United Nations resolution on curbing FTFs, according to government sources.
  

The government has tentatively concluded that Seoul is able to punish people who are suspected of joining terrorist groups or conducting terror acts with a set of current laws.
  

A review of domestic legal procedures to punish FTFs has been underway around the world as a follow-up to the U.N. resolution slamming violent extremism.
  

In September last year, the U.N. Security Council adopted resolution 2178 calling on cooperation to prevent travel and support for FTFs. (Yonhap)