ANTAGONISMS between South Korea and Japan are already at the boiling point. They’re bound to deepen with Tokyo’s plan to expand controls over exports of sensitive materials by dropping its neighbor from a list of 27 countries granted preferential trade status.

The decision, expected soon, will ripple across the high-tech sector, further shaking up supply chains already rattled by trade tensions between the United States and China.

As of July 4, Japanese companies need case-by-case approvals to export to South Korea three materials used to make semiconductors and displays used in smartphones and other high-tech devices.

With the loss of South Korea’s so-called “white country” status, that requirement will apply to dozens more products on a list of items that potentially could be converted to weapons, according to a Japanese trade ministry document. That’s in addition to more than 200 other items requiring individual inspection for exports to all countries.

Japan’s trade ministry says Seoul has undermined a “relationship of trust,” including export controls, with lax controls on re-exports to other countries. South Korea denies that, as meanwhile tensions have risen with some South Koreans calling for boycotts of Japanese products.

As a “public comment” period ended Wednesday last week, Japan’s trade minister Hiroshige Seko said Japan plans to go ahead and strip South Korea of its preferred status for export licensing. He said Seoul had failed to provide a convincing explanation to address Japan’s doubts that South Korean export controls are strict enough to prevent sensitive materials from potentially being misused.

Officials are studying opinions submitted to the government, but that’s largely a formality.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has not confirmed reports the Cabinet will approve the plan as early as Aug. 2. If it does, the new rules would take effect Aug. 23, forcing exporters to get licenses to sell a huge array of products ranging from alloys of aluminum to freeze dryers and vacuum pumps.

Approvals of such exports could take up to 90 days, slowing but not halting shipments. But ending South Korea’s “white country” status would also mean Japan could limit exports of any product on national security grounds.

Officials say Japan found some sensitive items were shipped to South Korea “with inadequate management by companies” —without giving specific examples or saying which Japan-based companies were at fault.

In at least five cases that were exposed and penalized, Japanese exports to South Korea have ended up illegally in North Korea since South Korea was added to the white list in 2004, government documents show.

Adding another layer of ambiguity to the diplomatic dispute, Tokyo also has expressed dissatisfaction over demands for compensation for people forced to work for Japanese firms during World War II, an issue Japan says it settled under the 1965 treaty normalizing relations.

Japan and South Korea are both important hosts for U.S. military bases in East Asia. But they’ve been bickering for years over a territorial dispute and over South Korean demands for more contrition and compensation from Japan for its use of forced labor and sexual abuse of Korean women in military brothels during the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula in the early 20th century.

Until recently, such issues had not affected trade between the two countries, both of which depend heavily on exports. Japan has run a perennial trade surplus with South Korea, at US$20.3 billion in 2018, with parts, chemicals and other materials and equipment accounting for about US$15 billion of its exports last year. (SD-Agencies)