SEOUL, July 24 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's trade ministry said Wednesday that it sent an official letter to Japan over the additionally planned export curbs by Japan to South Korea, demanding an immediate retraction of the existing export restriction.
Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo told a press briefing that the ministry delivered the official letter of the South Korean government to Japan about the expected revision of Japan's law to take South Korea off its whitelist of trusted trading partners.
If South Korea is removed from Japan's whitelist of granting preferential procedures for export, it could affect more than 1,000 items in trade between the two countries.
Japan already tightened regulations early this month on its export to South Korea of three materials vital to make memory chips and display panels, which are the mainstay of the South Korean export.
It came in protest against the South Korean top court's rulings that ordered some of Japanese companies to compensate the South Korean victims who were forced into hard labor without pay during the 1910-45 Japanese colonization of the Korean Peninsula.
Sung said Japan's claims that South Korea ran a lax export control system for strategic materials and damaged the bilateral ties with Japan with the top court's rulings were groundless.
The trade minister expressed deep regrets over Japan's planned revision of its trade law against South Korea, which can rattle the roots of bilateral economic cooperation and relationship, without any advance notice.
He urged Japan to immediately retract the existing export restrictions on three materials to South Korea as well as the planned revision of its trade law against South Korea.
The minister noted that South Korea was already for dialogue with Japan at any time and place to resolve the issues.
