Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Thursday the entry restrictions South Korea enforced against Japan in the face of the new coronavirus concerns are "qualitatively different" from the immigration control measures Tokyo adopted against Seoul.

Kang made the remarks during an interview with local broadcaster KBS, referring to Japan's 14-day quarantine order on South Koreans that took effect Monday amid the neighboring countries' protracted row over trade and wartime history.

Tokyo suspended its visa waiver program for South Koreans and started asking them to stay at designated facilities for two weeks and refrain from using public transportation.

In a tit-for-tat response to Tokyo's entry restrictions, Seoul also halted a 90-day visa-free entry program for Japanese visitors and imposed special entry procedures that require them to undergo temperature checks and fill out a health questionnaire and other paperwork at airports.

"When it comes to the visa waiver program, it could seem, in part, like a tit-for-tat action, but ... it had to be that way because if one party breaks the visa waiver agreement, the other party has to do so as well," the minister said.

"But regarding the quarantine efforts, Japan has begun imposing the 14-day isolation period, whereas we are asking people who are to come to come, but follow these steps. These are qualitatively different," she said.

The mutual restrictions came as the two countries are still mired in a dispute over Japan's export curbs, which South Korea sees as political retaliation for 2018 top court rulings here ordering Japanese firms to compensate victims of wartime forced labor.

Seoul has defended its immigration control measures against Tokyo as "restrained and principled."

Kang also said the government is not considering withdrawing its nationals from Italy for now despite a surge in the number of infections in the European country.

"Italy has quite an advanced medical system, so our judgment is that even if by any chance (our nationals) are infected, we think that they can get treated there," she said. (Yonhap)