Seoul, August 2: South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Friday pledged to take strict against the decision taken up by Japan’s cabinet of removing Seoul from its ‘white-list’ fast-track export status, terming it unfair and a reckless retaliatory move by Tokyo.
During a rare live broadcast, Moon told a cabinet meeting, “We won’t be defeated by Japan again,” but offer no details of the potential countermeasures.
The South Korean president, according to Reuters news reports, also condemned Tokyo as a “selfish nuisance” for disturbing the universal supply chain.
Japan on Friday said it would be removing South Korea from Japan’s “white list” of fast-track export status, while drawing threats from Seoul’s firm and further worsening relations that have already been stressed by a trade dispute and compensation issue of wartime forced labourers.
According to Reuters news reports, industry minister Hiroshige Seko, addressing media briefing, said the decision was upheld for national security concerns after the cabinet meeting and that it wasn’t intended to cause harm to Japan-South Korea bilateral ties.
Japan said the compensation issue has been settled by a 1965 pact that normalized relations between the two sides.
Seko has said Tokyo was not willing to hold direct talks with Seoul until it corrected its statement made out in July talks between bureaucrats of the two sides.
Also read: Japanese cabinet approves removing South Korea from ‘white-list’ fast-track export status