Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha on Tuesday described the compulsory quarantine of arrivals from South Korea by some local Chinese authorities over the concerns of the novel coronavirus as "excessive."

The minister gave the assessment to reporters after attending a Stockholm ministerial meeting on Nuclear Disarmament and the Nonproliferation Treaty in Berlin, Germany. 

Minister Kang said South Korea needs to continue communication with China to ensure the country will not make excessive responses. She noted that South Korea has refrained from such responses to China over the COVID-19 outbreak.

She added it's hard to accept that countries are imposing entry bans on South Koreans simply because they are from South Korea. 

The minister stressed that the government is watching measures by each country and actively dealing with them. 

Earlier on Tuesday, airport authorities of Weihai City in China's Shandong Province, imposed a 14-day mandatory quarantine on 167 passengers arriving on a flight from South Korea.