The Cabinet on Friday is expected to approve phase two of tighter export control measures against South Korea, brushing off pleas by both Seoul and Washington to halt further actions that could escalate tensions and rattle alliances.
Nearly a month after Tokyo imposed stricter rules on the export of three chemicals — fluorinated polyimide, hydrogen fluoride and a group of chemicals known as resists — integral to smartphone screens and semiconductors, and therefore critical to South Korean companies, Japan repeated its pledge to remove its neighbor from a list of countries entitled to preferential treatment in trade on Friday.
Foreign Minister Taro Kono met Thursday with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Bangkok, but the meeting apparently failed to bridge the wide gap in their positions. It was the first face-to-face encounter between both nations' top diplomats since Japan forged ahead with intensifying the screening process on the three chemical exports to South Korea.