In July, Japan tightened its control of exports of certain materials for semiconductor production to South Korea. On Aug. 28, the government took further action and removed South Korea from its whitelist of nations granted preferential trade procedure.
South Korea responded to these actions by removing Japan from its own whitelist, and by declaring it would terminate the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA) between the two countries. In the past, the GSOMIA has served as the framework for sharing defense intelligence on such matters as North Korean nuclear weapons and missile deployment.
Behind these developments is the smoldering issue of compensation for Koreans conscripted as wartime laborers for Japanese companies. In fall 2018, South Korea's Supreme Court ruled in favor of the former laborers in cases brought against Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp., and ordered the Japanese firms to compensate individuals for their labor. South Korean courts later approved the seizures of these firms' assets in order to extract compensation for the plaintiffs.