강경화 "일본이 백색국가 배제하면, 안보 틀 재검토 불가피"

The highly-anticipated meeting between foreign ministers of South Korea and Japan took place earlier today,... but there was no breakthrough that could defuse the escalating trade tensions.
Minister Kang Kyung-wha urged her counterpart not to remove South Korea from Japan’s whitelist of trusted trading partners, but it appears Japan’s stance will remain unchanged.
Let's get more details straight from Bangkok where our foreign affairs correspondent Lee Ji-won is standing by for us.
Ji-won fill us in.
Daniel, so ministers Kang and Taro Kono met for about an hour,... and it looks like Japan will move forward with taking Seoul off of its whitelist of countries that get preferential trade conditions tomorrow.
This comes despite South Korea's strong message to Japan not to aggravate the situation.
"We need some time to discuss and agree on the forced labor ruling or Japan's trade restrictions on Seoul. It's normal for two countries with disputes to find a solution through such talks,... so I strongly emphasized the need for that to Minister Kono."
A senior official at South Korea's foreign ministry told reporters soon after the sitdown, that Japan remained firm in its stance and that the differences could not be narrowed down.
He said while no new solution or proposal to the issue was raised by either side, Japan reiterated its request for the South Korean government to solve the forced labor ruling, in which a South Korean court ruled last year that Japanese firms must compensate Koreans who were forced to work for them during Japan's colonial rule.
Japan cites security concerns as the reason for its trade restrictions, but repeated connection by Japan of the trade issue and the forced labor ruling hints that the trade measures are ultimately a retaliatory move.
The official says Minister Kang brought up that connection to Kono and urged Japan to stop aggravating the situation.
And in response to Japan's "security concerns",... Seoul hinted that it might choose not to renew the two countries' military information-sharing pact at the end of this month.
"If Japan decides to take South Korea off its whitelist tomorrow, we are going to have to take necessary countermeasures as well. Japan cited security concerns for its trade restrictions on Seoul, so we told them that we have no choice but to review various security related ties as well."
Meanwhile, Minister Kang and the senior official did not clearly comment on the report that Washington has proposed a standstill agreement, which would put the dispute on hold and give the two countries time to talk it out.
But what Minister Kang did say, in terms of time for talking, is line with such a proposal.
Now as for Japan's response, we are expected to have a clearer picture later,... once minister Kono has his press briefing with the Japanese reporters later tonight.