TEHRAN, Jul 19 - Japan’s foreign minister publicly admonished South Korea’s ambassador on Friday in a worsening row over compensation for Korean forced laborers that has spilled over into their trade in high-tech materials used to make memory chips and screens.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The dispute between the key U.S. allies took a deadly turn when a South Korean man set himself on fire in front of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul in an apparent protest. He died later.
South Korea accused Japan of violating international law with its curbs this month on the export of high-tech materials to South Korean chipmaking giants, which could disrupt global supply chains.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono summoned South Korea’s ambassador, Nam Gwan-pyo, a day after the expiry of Japan’s deadline for South Korea to accept third-country arbitration of the forced labor dispute.
Ties been the neighbors have been thorny for decades because of South Korean resentment of Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
The forced labor issue was thrust to centrestage last year when a South Korean court ordered two Japanese firms to pay compensation to Koreans forced to work for them.
Japan says the whole compensation issue was settled under a 1965 treaty.
Source: Reuters
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