Anchor: Seoul has responded to Tokyo's recent trade retaliation, removing the island neighbor from its own "whitelist" of trusted trading partners. Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo on Monday announced the move, saying it is difficult to continue international collaboration with Japan.
Kim Bum-soo has more. 

Report: South Korea has decided to exclude Japan from its shortlist of nations that enjoy preferential export clearance.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo made the announcement Monday in an apparent response to Tokyo's removal of Seoul from its own trade "whitelist." 

[Sound bite: Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo (Korean)]
"In operating the export control system, we needed to consider the fact that it is hard to work closely with a country that frequently violates basic rules of export controls or  is continuously found to have improperly managed the system."

Seoul divided its previous list of 29 preferred trading partners into two groups. The minister said countries that do not respect the principles of four multilateral export control regimes will be placed in the newly-created second group. Japan is now the only country in the new group.

[Sound bite: Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo (Korean)]
 "The South Korean government is ready to discuss the issue anytime and anywhere with Japan upon its request during the opinion-gathering process." 

Under the tightened regulations, South Korean companies seeking to sell strategic goods to Japan will have to hand in significantly more documents for case-by-case government approval. The processing time is expected to take around two weeks, much longer than the current five days.

The new rules will likely take effect in September. 

The tit-for-tat trade measure came as Japan recently made official a revision to its trade regulations, dropping Seoul from its own whitelist of trusted trade partners.

Last month, Japan also sanctioned three high-tech material exports to South Korean semiconductor and smartphone manufacturers.

Seoul says Tokyo's measures are in retaliation to South Korean top court decisions last year that ordered Japanese companies to pay reparations to Korean victims of wartime forced labor. 
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.