Avoid worst-case scenario

Korea, Japan should not give up diplomatic efforts

South Korea and Japan risk heading for an all-out trade war. The prospects for a negotiated solution look dim because the two countries failed to narrow their differences during their foreign ministers' meeting Thursday.

The ministers met in Bangkok on the sidelines of the annual ministerial talks of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The meeting came a day before the Shinzo Abe administration is expected to decide whether to remove South Korea from its "whitelist" of 27 countries entitled to preferential trade treatment.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyungwha asked her Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, to refrain from depriving Korea of this trade status. She also called on Japan to retract its export restrictions on three high-tech materials which Korean companies need to make semiconductors and displays.

Regrettably, however, Kono reportedly reaffirmed Japan's position that the Abe government will press ahead with the delisting of Korea. More precisely, the Japanese side has no intention of solving the trade row through dialogue and compromise. It is dismaying to see Tokyo continue to refuse to find a diplomatic solution since it enacted the export restriction measures on July 4.

The ministers' meeting only confirmed that both countries agreed to disagree. Tokyo started the trade spat with Seoul in apparent retaliation for last year's rulings by the South Korean Supreme Court that ordered Japanese firms to pay compensation to surviving South Korean victims forced to work for them during World War II.

The Abe administration has tried to justify its export curbs, denying that they are retaliatory measures against the forced labor issue. Now it is in the process of intensifying its trade row by threatening to remove Korea from the whitelist.

As Minister Kang told Kono, the delisting of Korea could have grave ramifications on bilateral trade and diplomatic relations. This move, if taken, may run the risk of destroying global value and supply chains. Other economies such as the U.S., China and the European Union are also likely to suffer damage from Japan's irrational and unilateral action.

It will be inevitable for the Moon Jaein administration to take "corresponding measures" against the neighboring country if Tokyo decides to strip Korea of its preferential trade status. Such measures might include the revocation of a military information-sharing pact with Japan, a move that could jeopardize security cooperation between the two countries. This could also undermine U.S.-Korea-Japan collaboration in coping with North Korea's nuclear and missile threats and curbing a rising China.

That's why Washington is trying to help its two Asian allies defuse their tensions and patch up their soured ties. The U.S. has reportedly called on Seoul and Tokyo to consider signing a "standstill" agreement to give them more time to solve their issues through negotiations.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will get together with Kang and Kono on Friday to mediate in the intensifying Korea-Japan friction. We hope the three-way meeting will open the way for the two countries to avoid the worst-case scenario. Still the best way is, no doubt, to make diplomatic efforts to iron out differences and rebuild mutual trust.