BEIJING, March 13 (Xinhua) -- China and the Republic of Korea (ROK) Friday established a joint response and cooperation mechanism on COVID-19 and held the first video conference.

Its mission is to implement the important consensus reached by the two countries' heads of state, strengthen bilateral communication and collaboration, coordinate prevention and control efforts by the two countries, to achieve an early victory over the epidemic for the health and wellbeing of the two peoples, and at the same time uphold and advance bilateral exchanges and cooperation.

The mechanism will be led by the two foreign ministries and consist of government agencies responsible for health, education, customs, immigration and civil aviation.

During the video conference, participants spoke highly of the control efforts in both countries and cooperation between their counterpart departments. They discussed the priorities and concrete cooperation measures for the next step and agreed to reconvene in light of the epidemic developments.