diff --git a/scripts/kconfig/nconf.c b/scripts/kconfig/nconf.c
index ae1fe5f60327..521700ed7152 100644
--- a/scripts/kconfig/nconf.c
+++ b/scripts/kconfig/nconf.c
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@
 #ifndef _GNU_SOURCE
 #define _GNU_SOURCE
 #endif
+#include <locale.h>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <strings.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
@@ -1478,6 +1479,8 @@ int main(int ac, char **av)
 	int lines, columns;
 	char *mode;
 
+	setlocale(LC_ALL, "");
+
 	if (ac > 1 && strcmp(av[1], "-s") == 0) {
 		/* Silence conf_read() until the real callback is set up */
 		conf_set_message_callback(NULL);