SEOUL/TOKYO - Japan and South Korea
failed to mend a dispute that could threaten global supplies of
microchips and smartphone displays after officials met in Tokyo
on Friday for a more than five-hour briefing that drew media
attention for its frosty start.
Japan has tightened restrictions on the export of three
materials used in high-tech equipment, officially citing what
Japan has called "inadequate management" of sensitive items
exported to South Korea, as well as a lack of consultations
about export controls.
However, the dispute also appears to be rooted in a
decades-old wartime disagreement. It comes amid deep frustration
in Japan over what is seen as Seoul's failure to act in response
to a South Korean court ruling ordering a Japanese company to
compensate former forced labourers.
The briefing in Tokyo got off to an uncomfortable start when
two South Korean bureaucrats were ushered into a narrow room in
the Japanese trade ministry, where their Japanese counterparts
were already seated.
Neither side greeted the other and, in front of television
cameras, they faced each other in stony silence. A Japanese
official later explained that the bureaucrats had earlier met
and exchanged greetings. South Korean media, however, reported
there was a "cold reception" for their officials, and that the
meeting took place in a room that looked like a "garage".
Japan told South Korea that its trade controls system was
vulnerable, the Japanese official told reporters after the
meeting.
South Korea said it has proposed more talks with Japan by
July 24. Japan did not say whether it would accept the request
for more talks, made at a meeting in Tokyo, Lee Ho-hyeon, a
director at South Korea's trade ministry, told a briefing in
Seoul.
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The dispute between the U.S. allies could disrupt supplies
of chips and displays from South Korea's tech giants Samsung
Electronics and SK Hynix, which count
Apple Inc and other smartphone makers as customers.
Japan has said the curbs on exports of the materials --
which include hydrogen fluoride and etching gas used to make
chips -- were not retaliation in the feud over compensation for
South Koreans forced to work for Japanese firms.
But complicating the matter are Japanese media reports that
some quantity of hydrogen fluoride was shipped to North Korea
after being exported to the South. Hydrogen fluoride can be used
in chemical weapons.
Kim You-geun, South Korea's deputy director of national
security, has said South Korea has fully enforced U.N. sanctions
on North Korea and international export control regimes on
sensitive materials and dual-use technology.
"We express deep regret that senior Japanese officials have
been recently making irresponsible comments without presenting a
clear basis for them, suggesting our government was violating
export controls and not enforcing sanctions," Kim told a
briefing.
"To halt unnecessary disputes and to determine factual basis
of the Japanese government's claims, we suggest a panel of U.N.
Security Council experts or an appropriate international
organisation to conduct a fair investigation into any cases of
four major export control violations by South Korea and Japan."
Japanese officials have declined to comment directly on the
media reports that South Korea had shipped some quantity of one
of the materials to North Korea. The official who briefed
reporters on the meeting said the decision on export curbs was
not related to what has been reported.
South Korea's industry ministry said on Wednesday it had
found 156 cases of unauthorized exports of strategic goods as of
March since 2015, but none involved North Korea.
A Japanese foreign ministry official said the export curbs
were not meant as retaliation in the forced-labour feud although
trade minister Hiroshige Seko, in announcing the curbs, had
referred to that dispute, saying South Korea's lack of
sufficient response to resolve it had seriously damaged trust
between them.
Japan is also threatening to drop South Korea from a "white
list" of countries with minimum trade restrictions.
Relations between Washington's two Asian allies have long
been plagued by memories of Japan's 1910-45 colonisation of the
peninsula and the war, including the matter of "comfort women",
a euphemism for girls and women forced to work in Japanese
wartime military brothels.
The dispute over wartime forced labour worsened last year
after a South Korean court ordered Japanese firms to compensate
former conscripted labourers.
Japan says the matter was settled by the 1965 treaty and by
demanding compensation, South Korea is violating international
law.
Many Japanese resent being urged to atone for wartime deeds
of seven decades ago, while many in South Korea doubt the
sincerity of Japan's past apologies.