Anchor: The South Korean government has rolled out measures to secure supplies of key strategic items to cope with Japan's apparent trade retaliation against top court rulings ordering Japanese companies to provide compensation for wartime forced labor. Seoul is vowing to upgrade the competitiveness of local industries, while reducing their external dependence by investing at least one trillion won annually, over the next seven years.
Choi You Sun reports.

Report: South Korea's Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki says Seoul will invest in 100 key strategic items to create a stable supply within the next five years.

At a meeting with officials on Monday, Hong said by implementing new measures to reduce external dependency, the government plans to upgrade the competitiveness of the domestic materials, parts and equipment industries.

On Friday, Japan removed South Korea from its "whitelist" of nations given preferential treatment in export procedures in an apparent retaliation against South Korean Supreme Court rulings last year that ordered Japanese firms to compensate Korean victims of Japan's wartime forced labor.

Tokyo had earlier tightened restrictions on exports of three materials to South Korea that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays.

Seoul's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy said out of the 100 items in the areas of semiconductors, displays, automobiles, electronics, machinery and chemicals, it will secure supplies of the most pressing 20 items, including those subject to Japan's initial export curbs, within a year by reaching out to suppliers from other countries and expanding local production.

Supplies of the other 80 items will be secured over the next five years.

Seoul plans to spend seven-point-eight trillion won over the course of seven years on research and development and to ease regulations to help accelerate the development of key technologies.

In addition, it will provide financial and tax incentives and set up a council to connect local suppliers and firms and nurture test beds for new technologies and production.

A government-led center will also operate to support the industries while current regulatory exemptions on materials and parts will be extended to include equipment.
Choi You Sun, KBS World Radio News.