Tokyo, Mar. 16, (dpa/GNA) – Japan is lifting controls on exports of chip and display manufacturing materials to South Korea, while in return, Seoul is withdrawing a dispute settlement case brought before the World Trade Organization (WTO).
The deal was announced by both governments on Thursday at a meeting between South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo.
The background to the trade row was a dispute over compensation for Korean forced labourers during Japan’s colonial rule from 1910 to 1945.
Japan imposed the controls after South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled in 2018 that two Japanese corporations must pay damages to former forced labourers. Tokyo, however, considers the issue closed by a 1965 treaty.
Recently, the government in Seoul presented new plans to resolve the compensation issue. According to these plans, former forced labourers or their relatives are to be compensated by a public South Korean fund to which donations from private sources are to be made. In particular, South Korean companies that benefited from the 1965 treaty are to be targeted.
Japan has welcomed the plan. The two important US allies want to settle their disputes and quickly improve bilateral security and economic relations, against the backdrop of an increasingly assertive China.
GNA