SEOUL/TOKYO: Japan has approved shipment of a high-tech material to South Korea for the first time since imposing export curbs last month, but doubled down on political pressure and warned it could broaden restrictions on deliveries to its Asian neighbour.
The approval and subsequent warning illustrate how Tokyo is ready to up the ante in the diplomatic row and yet unwilling to fully cut off exports to South Korea.
The dispute, rooted in their wartime past and exacerbated by the recent tightening of curbs on shipments of three high-tech components, has stoked nationalism and raised trade concerns.
Relations between the two US allies worsened late last year as part of a decades-old dispute over compensation for forced labourers during Japan’s occupation. South Korea has invoked its difficult history with Japan, which colonised the Korean peninsula during World War Two.
“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.
It is the first time since the export curbs were introduced last month that Japan has allowed shipment of one of the three high-tech materials, he said.
He was quick to add Tokyo would expand the curbs beyond the three specialised chemicals — fluorinated polyimides, photoresists and hydrogen fluouride — if there were any cases of “improper” use. Some of the chemicals, which are used to make smartphone displays and chips, can also be used in weapons.
Japanese officials have cited unspecified security reasons for their export curbs.
But they have pointed to an erosion of trust after South Korean court rulings last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate wartime forced labourers. Tokyo says the matter was settled by a 1965 treaty normalising bilateral ties.
South Korea’s president, Moon Jae-in, said on Thursday that tighter curbs would undermine Japan’s international credibility and accused Tokyo of using its industrial advantage as a weapon against another country.
“Even if there are any gains, it will be short-lived. In the end it is a game without winners, where everyone, including Japan itself, becomes a victim,” Moon said.
The high-tech material that has been just cleared by Japan for export is EUV photoresists, South Korean Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said. The chemical is crucial for Samsung’s advanced contract chipmaking production. Samsung declined to comment. — Reuters
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