NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

142 Korean nationals and their Chinese family members who were flown in from Wuhan on a chartered flight were transported to their temporary living facilities at the Korea Defense Language Institute in Icheon, Gyeonggi-do Province. Initially, 147 people boarded the plane, but five were taken to the National Medical Center after displaying suspicious symptoms.
"Echo of Unification," a North Korean propaganda outlet, reported on the country's disease prevention measures, which included banning anyone not wearing a mask from accessing Pyongyang Station. The state-affiliated daily Rodong Shinmun also ran an article about North Korea Premier Kim Jae-ryong inspecting the emergency headquarters with a photo of him in a meeting wearing a mask.
Japan claimed that the Korean government had violated World Trade Organization regulations on subsidy when merging Hyundai Heavy and Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering by providing direct financial support. The Japanese government asked for a bilateral consultation to settle this dispute.
If the novel coronavirus spreads at the rate of the SARS epidemic in 2002 and the MERS outbreak in 2015, the number of foreign tourists to Korea may fall by 1.25 million and 1.65 million, respectively, according to the Korea Economic Research Institute. Korea is also projected to see its tourism income decrease by 3.2 trillion won and 4.6 trillion won.