South Korea and Japan’s foreign ministers held talks on Thursday, a day before Tokyo will decide whether to remove South Korea from a shortlist of preferred trading partners.

Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha and her Japanese counterpart Taro Kono held discussions in Bangkok for around an hour late Thursday morning.

A Foreign Ministry official said that Kang remonstrated Japan’s export curbs on South Korea as well as the widely-expected removal of South Korea from a “whitelist” of 27 countries that enjoy streamlined trade relations with Japan.

She urged Tokyo to suspend such efforts. 

Kono and his officials are said to have responded by reiterating a previous position that security concerns necessitate strengthening trade regulations.

The ministry official said that Japan’s recalcitrance at the Thursday meeting suggests that it will likely move forward with South Korea’s removal from its trading partner whitelist.

If the move is approved and implemented most Japanese exporters will need to secure individual permits for every shipment to South Korea, potentially delaying or disrupting the supply of nearly all outbound shipments to the peninsula.