South Korea protests Japan's travel curbs as coronavirus ignites diplomatic row
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A woman wearing a mask walks past a schedules board at Incheon International Airport on Jan 3, 2020. Japan has imposed a two-week quarantine for visitors from South Korea.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL (REUTERS) - South Korea strongly protested on Friday (March 6) against Japan's decision to impose a two-week quarantine for visitors from South Korea, calling it "unreasonable, excessive and extremely regrettable".
Japan's government defended the new, tighter travel restrictions on visitors from China and South Korea, saying they were not too late to help slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
"The decision was the result of a comprehensive review of the information available about the situation in other countries and the effects of other measures," chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said at a news conference on Friday.
"I think the timing is appropriate."
Starting Monday, people arriving from China and South Korea will be quarantined for two weeks at designated sites. Japanese nationals will also be subject to the measures, Mr Suga said.
Seoul's foreign ministry will summon the Japanese ambassador on Friday to lodge a complaint, after calling in a senior diplomat late on Thursday to request explanations, it said in a statement.
South Korea said on Friday it will consider countermeasures to Japan's "unjust, unacceptable" travel restrictions.
The presidential National Security Council met after Japan's announcement, and issued a statement saying, "It is unacceptable that the Japanese government took such an unjust action without prior consultations with us, and we will explore necessary countermeasures based on principles of reciprocity,".
The number of coronavirus cases in Japan climbed to 1,057 as of Friday morning, an increase of 21 people over the previous day, according to national broadcaster NHK.
