Japanese daily the Yomiuri Shimbun says Japan has frozen its planned purchase of South Korean government bonds due to bilateral diplomatic rows.

The newspaper reported on Friday that Japan’s Finance Ministry has decided to freeze the purchase under the judgment that the move is unlikely to win the Japanese people’s understanding under the current circumstances.

Japan was planning to buy South Korean bonds this year as there was an agreement amongst South Korea, China, and Japan to hold each other’s government bonds. The three nations had made the agreement during a meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in the Philippines in May.