By Kantaro Komiya
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan is considering loosening controls on South Korean exports as President Yoon Seok-yeol seeks to improve the relationship environment amid security tensions in East Asia, The Sankei Shimbun reported on Saturday.
Japan will decide whether to relax restrictions on transporting high-tech materials, it said in 2019 Sankei, citing unnamed government sources, said that due to a series of meetings aimed at In talks to resolve a dispute, South Korean workers were forced into wartime labor. Reuters reached out for comment on the report when they were contacted outside normal business hours.
South Korea’s foreign ministry said in a statement that the issue of export restrictions may be resolved when South Korea and Japan hold consultations on various issues including forced labor.
“Given the growing need to promote cooperation among countries of universal value amidst the growing importance of economic security, we hope Japan will exercise wise judgment,” South Korea The foreign ministry said.
The foreign ministers of the two countries met in Tokyo this month. Their diplomats are scheduled to meet in the South Korean capital Seoul on Monday as they near finalization of plans to resolve the dispute, Jiji News reported on Friday.
Both East Asian neighbors are key U.S. allies with a painful history dating back to Japan’s to the colonial rule of the Korean peninsula.
Yoon Eun-hye, who became South Korea’s leader in May last year, also made strengthening cooperation with Japan a core goal despite lingering disputes.
