SEOUL - South Korea said on Friday that it would suspend visas and visa waivers for Japan in response to Tokyo's own travel restrictions on South Koreans, as fears over the spreading coronavirus rekindled a feud between the neighbours dating back to before World War II.
The number of cases in Japan grew to 1,112 on Friday, with 55 new infections reported from Yamaguchi prefecture, according to the national broadcaster NHK. "If the Japanese government does not withdraw its decision ... we cannot help but devise necessary countermeasures, including reciprocal measures," South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told Japanese Ambassador Koji Tomita.
The number of new cases of the virus fell to 505 in South Korea on Friday, from 760 the previous day, the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said.