South Korea ordered its overseas missions in the quake-prone basin of the Pacific Ocean to check its preparedness against natural disasters after Japan and Ecuador were hit by massive earthquakes, Seoul officials said Monday.

The government has directed its embassies and consulates in the countries along the so-called circum-Pacific belt to check the number of Korean residents and tourists in the areas under their responsibility, and see if their disaster response systems are functioning.

The 40,000-km circum-Pacific belt, also known as the "Ring of Fire," is where a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions have occurred. The belt includes the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines, Japan, the Kuril Islands and the western coast of North America.

Following the two earthquakes in southern Japan on Thursday and Saturday, and another in Ecuador on Sunday, concerns are rising that another set of earthquakes could occur in the belt vulnerable to quakes.

While hundreds of casualties have been reported in both Japan and Ecuador, there have been no reports of South Korean casualties yet, Seoul said. (Yonhap)