Hong Kong's two-month Mers travel warning was excessive, says South Korean envoy

South Korea's top diplomat in the city says a two-month travel warning issued by the Hong Kong government against his country during the Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers) outbreak was "excessive".

Kim Kwang-dong, South Korea's consul general in Hong Kong and Macau, said the move had had a huge economic impact on both places, and his country had lost a lot of opportunities to work with Hongkongers.

He also defended South Korea's decision a month later to issue a travel alert for Hong Kong over influenza cases in the city, stressing it was based on scientific evidence.

Now that both alerts have been lifted, Kim said he hoped authorities would look to the future, stressing South Korea still considered Hong Kong a "very close friend".

"During the alert, South Korean people including myself were feeling a little bit hurt," Kim told the South China Morning Post. "In my opinion, it was excessive, even though I fully understand that Hong Kong suffered from the experience during 2003's Sars," he said, referring to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome.