South Korea has confirmed the second case of a mysterious pneumonia-like illness that has been spreading in China and elsewhere. 

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention(KCDC) said on Friday that a 55-year-old South Korean man tested positive for the new strain of coronavirus the previous day. 

According to the health authorities, the man developed a sore throat while working in the central Chinese city of Wuhan on January 10th and visited a local hospital on Sunday to be treated for the symptom. 

He returned to South Korea on Wednesday and had been monitored since showing fever and sore throat in the quarantine process at Incheon International Airport. 

KCDC said the person has actively cooperated on checkups, been treated in isolation at a state-designated hospital in Incheon and is now in stable condition.

It is the second case declared in the country in less than a week following the confirmation of a 35-year-old woman with Chinese nationality on Monday, who also arrived the previous day from Wuhan, where the epidemic first broke out at the end of last month.