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| Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha speaks during a National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee session, Tuesday. Yonhap |
By Do Je-hae
Japan's potential removal of Korea from its list of trusted trade partners is fast emerging as another flashpoint in already tense bilateral relations.
During a session at the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, Tuesday, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said that Japan is expected to remove Korea from its "whitelist" of countries for preferential treatment in trade as early as Aug. 2.
"If Japan makes a Cabinet decision to exclude Korea from the whitelist, bilateral relations will crumble out of control," Kang said. "We strongly call on Tokyo to withdraw the restrictions that have already been implemented and stop going forward with the whitelist action, and sternly warn it of the negative impact these moves will have on bilateral relations," the foreign minister said.
Ahead of the imminent approval, Korea is going all out to prevent the move through diplomacy at various levels of government as well as the Assembly.
At this critical point in the escalating trade feud, the Moon Jae-in administration is exerting particular efforts to realize a meeting between the foreign ministers of the two countries at the Aug. 1-3 ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Bangkok where Kang will arrive today. She said the two countries were in the process of arranging a ministerial meeting, saying that there was a high possibility for a meeting with her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono.
To support the Moon administration's focus on the trade war with Japan, a 10-member delegation from the National Assembly led by eight-term lawmaker Rep. Suh Chung-won will arrive in Japan, also today, to urge Tokyo's restraint on export restrictions. Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, is one of the leading politicians that the delegation will meet.
The escalating tension from the whitelist exclusion highlights the need for continuing bilateral talks, according to experts. Japan has not been very forthcoming about talks among trade officials, but has signaled it was open to diplomatic talks. Kang and Kono spoke by phone July 26.
"The biggest diplomatic challenge right now is to keep our principles, but at the same time maintain the bilateral talks and prepare platforms for discussing new resolutions," said Nam Ki-jeong, a professor at the Institute for Japanese Studies at Seoul National University. "The essence of the issue is in the Supreme Court ruling, but we need to continue to state our position on the trade and export restrictions to the international community and the Japanese public."
Seoul's immediate goal during the potential Kang-Kono meeting will be to prevent Korea being removed from the whitelist, which it is feared could deal an additional blow to the economy on top of the export restrictions on key resource materials needed by Korea's high-tech manufacturers. "At the very least, we must cancel, hold or delay the Cabinet approval through the Kang-Kono meeting," opposition heavyweight Rep. Park Jie-won of the Party for Democracy and Peace said on Facebook, Tuesday.
According to the latest reports, the Kang-Kono meeting could take place Aug. 1, a day before the Japanese Cabinet meeting, given that there are a series of multilateral meetings scheduled for Aug. 2. There is also keen interest in any potential mediating role by the U.S. as Kang mentioned the possibility that she will meet with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during the ARF.
Seoul sees Japan's increasing trade pressure as retaliation to a 2018 Supreme Court ruling on compensating surviving South Korean victims of wartime forced labor by Japanese firms. Latest news reports from Japan underline that Tokyo is dead set against a Korea-Japan summit unless Seoul gives a "productive response" to the wartime labor issue.
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