South Korea’s Yoon says he will order Japan back on trade ‘white list’

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol delivers a speech to students at Keio University in Tokyo, Japan March 17, 2023, in this photo released by Kyodo. Mandatory credit Kyodo via REUTERS/File photo

SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol said on Tuesday he would order officials to begin procedures that would return Japan to its “white list” of countries with fast-track trade status after a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last week.

Yoon made the remark at a cabinet meeting, saying South Korea and Japan should make efforts to remove obstacles that hinder developing bilateral ties.

“I will preemptively order our trade minister today to begin necessary legal procedures to have Japan back on our white list,” Yoon said at the start of the meeting televised live. “I’m sure Japan will respond if South Korea first starts removing the obstacles.”

South Korea and Japan removed each other from the list in 2019 amid a decades-old row over South Korean forced labor under Japan’s 1910-1945 occupation of Korea.

Relations between the two countries made headway when Seoul announced this month a plan for its companies to compensate former forced laborers, followed by Yoon’s Tokyo trip, which marked the first such visit by a South Korean head of state in 12 years.

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