S. Korea strongly urges Japan to withdraw export curbs, refutes Tokyo's claims one by one

Today is the deadline Japan is accepting feedback before it decides whether to take South Korea off its "whitelist" of trading countries.South Korea's trade ministry says it has submitted an opinion to Tokyo to urge it to withdraw the curbs and to emphasize unfairness of the restrictions.For more, we have our Yoon Jung-min on the line.Jung-min, tell us more.Sure Mark. A few hours ago, Seoul's trade ministry strongly urged Japan to take back its latest export curbs as well as its attempt to revise the trade law to exclude South Korea from the 27 trading countries on its whitelist,...who receive preferential treatment on trade.Take a listen."Japan should immediately retract its groundless export restrictions on the three items related to semiconductors. Also, Japan should withdraw its move to revise the trade law to take South Korea off its whitelist. Companies and people in both countries do not want to break South Korea and Japan's win-win economic ties, which have lasted more than 60 years, because of this issue."Removal will require Japanese exporters to apply for case by case approvals to ship goods to South Korea.The ministry added it hopes to maintain a future-oriented relationship with Tokyo and is fully ready to sit down with their Japanese counterparts for talks anytime, anywhere.Were there any other remarks from the trade ministry?Yes. The government refuted Japan's claims one by one.It said South Korea has always properly managed its own export controls to North Korea with a 'catch-all' system, which is stricter than Japan's system,...adding Japan is claiming a false argument because it lacks understanding of South Korea's tight controlling system of strategic and non-strategic goods.It went on to say Seoul has been maintaining its dialogue channel with Tokyo. Japan cited a lack of communication as another reason for the curbs,...but last March, the seventh high-level talks between Seoul and Tokyo were postponed under both sides' consent because Japan also understood it was not easy for them to adjust the schedule.The trade minister also said Japan's latest moves are against the WTO's principles of free trade, calling them short-sighted because it's going to hurt Japanese companies while impacting the global supply chain.That's all from me at this hour, but I will keep you updated. Mark.