South Korea has officially removed Japan from its list of trusted partners in the trading of strategic items.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said on Wednesday that it has revised the country's export control system for strategic items and posted the revision on its official gazette, meaning it has gone into effect. 

The ministry said it has completed all necessary procedures for the removal, collecting opinions on the move and having the Ministry of Government Legislation review it. 

The revision contains details on removing Japan from South Korea's "whitelist" of 29 countries receiving preferential status in the trading of strategic items.  

The new classification scheme expands the number of trade partner categories from two to three. Japan is the sole occupant of the newly-created in-between group.

Under the revision, domestic exporters shipping strategic goods to Japan will now have to submit additional documents to win individual approval. The approval process will also take around 15 days, longer than the previous five.
   
Korean exporters also need to go through stricter procedures to win a two-year comprehensive approval to ship goods to Japan, shorter than the three-year period granted for trusted countries.