SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in has criticized comments by Japanese officials who questioned the credibility of Seoul’s sanctions against North Korea while justifying Tokyo’s stricter controls on high-tech exports to South Korea.
The issue has become a full-blown diplomatic dispute between the neighboring U.S. allies.
Moon in a meeting with business leaders on Wednesday said Seoul was committed to finding a diplomatic solution and urged Japan to refrain from pushing the situation to a “dead-end street.”
He spoke hours after South Korean officials told a WTO meeting in Geneva that the Japanese measures would have repercussions for electronics products worldwide and called for their withdrawal. Japanese officials countered that the measures didn’t amount to a trade embargo, but rather a review of export controls based on security concerns.
