Senior officials from South Korea and Japan will hold a meeting in Seoul on Thursday amid escalating tensions between the two countries over trade and historical issues. 

According to the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, Kim Jeong-han, director general of the ministry's Asian and Pacific Affairs Bureau, will meet with his Japanese counterpart Kenji Kanasugi at 2 p.m.
 
The talks come a day after Japan's removal of South Korea from a “whitelist” of trusted trading partners.

The meeting also comes about a week after Kim and Kanasugi held a separate bilateral meeting in Beijing on the sidelines of a meeting of top diplomats of South Korea, China and Japan.

In the Thursday meeting, Kim is expected to ask Japan to immediately reverse its whitelist decision.

Kanasugi is also scheduled to meet with South Korea's top nuclear envoy Lee Do-hoon at 4 p.m. before returning to Japan.