The top diplomats of South Korea and Norway have discussed efforts to fight the novel coronavirus, the foreign ministry here said Saturday.

During the telephone talks with her Norwegian counterpart, Ine Marie Eriksen Soreide, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha stressed her country's far-reaching quarantine and disinfection efforts to contain the local spread of COVID-19, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs here said.

Kang also asked for the Norwegian government's cooperation in allowing necessary human exchanges between the countries despite Norway's recent border control measures taken to fight the virus infection.

Since late last month, Norway has been imposing a mandatory 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving from foreign countries except Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland.

The Norwegian foreign minister highly appreciated the transparency and openness with which South Korea has been fighting the spreading coronavirus and called for continued cooperation between the countries in battling the virus, the ministry said. (Yonhap)