Two South Koreans died and another went missing in American Samoa as towering tsunami waves spawned by a powerful earthquake swept ashore, South Korea's Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
The official said the death toll is a tentative figure and it may rise, according to Yonhap News Agency.
"According to our embassy in New Zealand, two South Koreans were dead and one was missing due to the tsunami generated by the strong earthquake," he said. "We are trying to find out whether there were more victims."
The victims include a 62-year-old fisherman, Lee In-saeng, and a woman in her 40s only identified by her family name Shin, the official said, adding Shin's seven-year-old daughter is missing.
"There are 234 South Korean residents in American Samoa, mostly involved in deep-sea fishery, but no South Korean resides in Samoa," he said.
A tsunami in the Pacific Ocean caused by a magnitude-8 earthquake on Tuesday (local time) killed at least 34 people and leaving dozens of workers missing in Samoa and American Samoa.