US to Try to Ease Trade Tensions Between Japan, South Korea
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet with Japan and South Korea in an effort to ease trade tensions between those two countries, he said July 30. Pompeo, traveling to a Thailand summit for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, said both Japan and South Korea are “great partners of ours” and that “we will encourage them to find a path forward” and “get to a good place.” He plans to meet with Japan's Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono and South Korea's Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha.
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“We think it’s important,” Pompeo said. “If we can help them find a good place for each of their two countries, we certainly find that important to the United States.”
The two countries are locked in a dispute that began July 1 when Japan announced export restrictions on certain technological goods going to South Korea (see 1907010020). South Korea then raised a dispute with the World Trade Organization, and Japan announced intentions to remove South Korea from its so-called "whitelist" of trusted trading partners (see 1907300058).