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By APD writer Alice
South Korea and Japan could meet again for a second round of talks next month in a move to address their ongoing trade tensions, said Sung Yun-mo, South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy.
The talks are part of a dispute settlement process of the two neighbors under rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Their first talks took place in Geneva earlier this month following Seoul's complaint with the WTO over Tokyo's export restrictions, but no agreement was reached,.
On October 24, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who was in Tokyo to attend the enthronement ceremony of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, held talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe for 21 minutes, agreeing on the need to address the problem of strained bilateral relations.
Lee also handed over to Abe a letter from South Korean President Moon Jae-in calling Japan an “important partner” in maintaining peace in Northeast Asia and expressing his hope for an early resolution to the current dispute.
Bilateral ties have become frosty after South Korea’s top court last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate for forced labour during Japan’s colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 through the end of World War II in 1945. Meanwhile, Japan claimed that the issue was settled by a 1965 agreement.
It led to Tokyo’s imposition of tighter regulations on exports to Seoul of three materials -- resist, etching gas and fluorinated polyimide -- that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays of Asia’s fourth largest economy. Japan later removed South Korea from its list of trusted trading partners
In reply, South Korea also removed Japan from its own list of trusted partners.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
