Tokyo, August 19: Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono is scheduled on Wednesday to meet Kang Kyung-wha, the foreign minister of South Korea, in China’s capital, Beijing, an official from Japanese foreign ministry said on Monday in the midst of deteriorating bilateral and diplomatic relations between the two East Asian nations.
According to Reuters news reports, the discussions are slated to come from Tuesday during a trip to China until Thursday for a bilateral meeting with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi, marking it the first such trilateral conference in past three years.
On August 8, Japan has approved the first shipment of its high-tech material to South Korea since it imposed export restriction last month, warning it could widen its curbs on exports to Seoul.
According to Reuters news reports, the subsequent warning and the approval demonstrate how Japan was keen to put a comma in the diplomatic row but yet not willing to completely cut off its exports curbs on South Korea.
“Usually, we don’t announce each time we give export permission. However, the South Korean government has referred to our moves as an embargo on exports, which is unfair criticism,” Japanese Industry Minister Hiroshige Seko told a briefing.
He added Japan would expand the restrictions ahead of the three expertized chemicals – hydrogen fluoride, photoresists, and fluorinated polyimides, in case of “improper” use.
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