South Korea to Remove Japan’s Favored Trading Nation Status

The tit-for-tat between South Korea and Japan continues:

South Korea said Friday that it will remove Japan from its list of trusted trading partners in an escalating trade war between the two neighbors, in what could be its latest salvo against Tokyo’s expanded trade restriction.

“We will take the step of strengthening export controls by excluding Japan from the whitelist,” Hong Nam-ki, the minister of economy and finance, said in a joint news conference.

Currently, Japan and 28 other countries are on Seoul’s whitelist. South Korea said it will create a new category in its export controls and put Japan in that category.

Sung Yun-mo, minister of trade, industry and energy, declined to elaborate on how many items could be affected by South Korea’s removal of Japan from the list.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this is in response to Japan removing the ROK’s favored trading status due to the Moon administration trying to forcibly seize the assets of Japanese companies in South Korea.