South Korea’s Moon expresses pride in overcoming Japan’s ‘unfair’ export restrictions

By Hiroshi Mizota / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent

13:37 JST, May 9, 2022

SEOUL — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Monday expressed pride in his people for striving to overcome difficulties caused by Japan’s export restrictions after bilateral relations soured over issues including former requisitioned workers from the Korean Peninsula.

“I can never forget that we united to overcome the crisis caused by Japan’s unfair export restrictions,” Moon said at the president’s office in a speech marking the end of his tenure, which was to conclude that day.

Moon’s remarks are thought to be an attempt to laud his own economic policies by citing Japan’s tightening export control measures against South Korea.

The outgoing president added that Tokyo’s measures “gave rise to stronger competition in the manufacturing industry.”

Moon did not refer to the issues of former requisitioned workers or so-called comfort women, which contributed to the deterioration in Japan-South Korea relations.