Her remarks came during the talks with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono on the margins of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Forum (ASEAN).
She also demanded Taro Kono to reconsider the decision to exclude South Korea from the list of countries to which Japanese nanomaterials and high-tech components are supplied without restrictions on simplified schemes.
Earlier, the Japanese government announced that it was going to take the appropriate step on 2 August.
The Japanese Foreign Minister in response to these demands noted that the steps taken by Tokyo are aimed at ensuring Japanese national security and are within the norms of international law.
On July 1, Tokyo tightened control over the export to South Korea of three types of materials needed for the production of semiconductors and screens of various gadgets. The reason for this, in particular, was the suspicion that some of these components could be illegally supplied from South to North Korea. Seoul categorically rejects this possibility.
The relationship between Tokyo and Seoul escalated in the fall of 2018 when the Supreme Court of the Republic of Korea ordered the Japanese company Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal to pay compensation to four Korean citizens for forcing them to work during World War II. The Japanese government rejected the court’s decision, stressing that this problem was finally resolved when relations between Tokyo and Seoul were normalized in 1965. In accordance with a bilateral agreement then signed, such proceedings envisage the involvement of representatives of third countries in the process.
