"Japan, Reveal Solutions for 3 Major Regulatory Items and Whitelist by the End of May"

"Japan's Demand to 'Strengthen Legal Basis, Export Organization, and Export Personnel for Conventional Weapons Catch-All' Met"
"No Reason to Hesitate in Restoring Export Control Strengthening Measures"

Lee Ho-hyun, Director General for Trade Policy, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. (Photo by Yonhap News)

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] South Korea has urged Japan to disclose solutions regarding three regulated items?EUV resist, fluorinated polyimide, and hydrogen fluoride?and the whitelist (security-related export screening preferential countries) by the end of this month. Since South Korea has fulfilled all the conditions Japan demanded, such as conventional weapons catch-all controls and reinforcement of export management organizations and personnel, Japan should also express its intention to restore the export regulations to their previous state.

Lee Ho-hyun, Director-General of Trade Policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, held a briefing at the Government Complex Sejong on the 12th, strongly urging Japan to ease its export restrictions. Although the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry have held official and unofficial meetings at the director and division chief levels over the past six months since agreeing to resume Korea-Japan director-level policy dialogues on November 22 last year, Japan has not taken any measures to withdraw the export restrictions.

Lee emphasized that since South Korea has reinforced all the reasons Japan cited for strengthening export controls against Korea, Japan must also show a clearly changed attitude. Japan demanded ▲legal grounds for conventional weapons catch-all control ▲reorganization of export management organizations ▲reinforcement of export management personnel.

Lee said, "Despite Korea’s catch-all controls operating normally and effectively, the amendment to the Foreign Trade Act was completed on March 18 and is scheduled to be implemented on April 19."

He explained, "Regarding export management organizations and personnel, as of the 6th, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy expanded and reorganized the dedicated trade security team from the existing division-level 'Trade Security Division' to the bureau-level 'Trade Security Policy Office.'"

He added, "Not only has the number of export management examiners been significantly increased, but trade security tasks such as strategic materials and prevention of technology leakage have been unified, and expertise has been further strengthened."

Lee stated that the three items?EUV resist, fluorinated polyimide, and hydrogen fluoride?which were switched from general licenses to individual licenses by the Japanese government on July 4 last year, have accumulated sufficient sound export transaction records over more than ten months of actual operation.

He reported that some items are allowed under specific general licenses, and there have been no problems with exports to South Korea.

In other words, since the conditions Japan demanded have been met and there are no issues with exports to South Korea, Japan should also present a changed attitude and concrete alternatives.

Lee said, "Considering that the three reasons Japan raised when imposing export regulations?suspension of Korea-Japan policy dialogues, conventional weapons catch-all control, and insufficient export management organizations and personnel?have all been resolved and there are no problems with exports to South Korea, it can be said that Japan has all the necessary and sufficient conditions to resolve the issue. There is no reason to hesitate in restoring the strengthened export control measures to their original state."

He added, "Moreover, as the one-year anniversary of Japan’s announcement of strengthened export control measures against South Korea on July 1 last year approaches, the issue cannot be delayed any further. The South Korean government urges the Japanese government to clarify its specific position on solutions regarding the three items and the whitelist. Considering Japan’s COVID-19 emergency situation, we request that the Japanese government respond by the end of this month."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.