MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2019) The United States has offered to hold a trilateral meeting with South Korea and Japan to settle a trade dispute between Seoul and Tokyo, Kim Hyun-chong, the deputy chief of the South Korean National Security Office, said on Friday.
Last week, Japan introduced restrictions on South Korean exports of fluorinated polyamides, photoresists and hydrogen fluoride, three key materials for producing memory chips and smartphones. The move is believed to be a response to a South Korean court ruling, making Japanese companies to pay compensations to South Korean forced labor victims during the 1910-1945 Japanese rule of Korea.
"A high-level American official will be traveling to Asia, so the US wanted to use the opportunity to have a three-way meeting, but while South Korea and the U.S. are very eager, the Japanese side appears to be a bit passive," Kim said, as quoted by the Yonhap news agency.
The official refused to specify the name of the US official he was speaking about.
"We would like to seek a constructive solution, but the Japanese side still hasn't responded," Kim added.
The ties between the South Korea and Japan have long been aggravated by the memory of Japan's colonial rule over Korea from 1910-1945. It is believed that Japanese companies forced prisoners of war as well as local residents into hard labor in the Japanese military industry during the occupation and throughout World War II.
