A business lobby group has called on Japan to ease its restrictions on exports of key industrial products to South Korea to help improve strained ties between the two countries.
Kwon Tae-shin, vice chairman of the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), made the request Thursday during a breakfast meeting with Japanese Ambassador to Seoul Koji Tomita and local business leaders.
Executives from 20 companies including Hyundai Motor, Korean Air Lines, SK hynix and KB Kookmin Bank attended the meeting at FKI's headquarters in Yeouido.
Ambassador Tomita said the two sides need to resolve the export curbs issue through political talks, which he said have been suspended.
In July 2019, Japan tightened regulations on exports of three high-tech materials critical for the production of semiconductors and displays to South Korea.
The following month, Japan also removed South Korea from its list of countries given preferential treatment in trade procedures.
The move are seen as retaliation against 2018 South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
