<p class="title">South Korea and Japan have agreed to hold senior-level trade talks in December to discuss Tokyo's export restrictions at the centre of a bitter dispute between the two countries, the South Korean trade ministry said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The talks would include Japan's tighter rules since July on the export of three high-tech materials to South Korea and its removal of Seoul from its so-called "white list" of countries with fast-track trade status, the ministry said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Seoul responded by taking Japan off its list of fast-track trade countries, deepening the trade dispute that has festered for months and hurt some of Asia's biggest exporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We will pursue dialogue with an ultimate goal to make things like the white list or three items go back to the original state," Lee Ho-hyun, a South Korean senior trade ministry official, said at a news briefing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The talks would take place in the third week of December in Tokyo, the ministry added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The two countries agreed on Saturday to hold a summit next month in a major step towards improving relations strained by decades of bitterness over their wartime past. In a further sign of an easing of tensions, South Korea has also agreed to stick to an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Officials from both countries met on Thursday to discuss holding the senior-level trade dialogue, according to the South Korean trade ministry.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The mood at the meeting on Thursday was more "friendly" than a similar meeting in July shortly after Tokyo imposed the export curbs, Lee added. </p>
<p class="title">South Korea and Japan have agreed to hold senior-level trade talks in December to discuss Tokyo's export restrictions at the centre of a bitter dispute between the two countries, the South Korean trade ministry said on Friday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The talks would include Japan's tighter rules since July on the export of three high-tech materials to South Korea and its removal of Seoul from its so-called "white list" of countries with fast-track trade status, the ministry said.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Seoul responded by taking Japan off its list of fast-track trade countries, deepening the trade dispute that has festered for months and hurt some of Asia's biggest exporters.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"We will pursue dialogue with an ultimate goal to make things like the white list or three items go back to the original state," Lee Ho-hyun, a South Korean senior trade ministry official, said at a news briefing.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The talks would take place in the third week of December in Tokyo, the ministry added.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The two countries agreed on Saturday to hold a summit next month in a major step towards improving relations strained by decades of bitterness over their wartime past. In a further sign of an easing of tensions, South Korea has also agreed to stick to an intelligence-sharing deal with Japan.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Officials from both countries met on Thursday to discuss holding the senior-level trade dialogue, according to the South Korean trade ministry.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The mood at the meeting on Thursday was more "friendly" than a similar meeting in July shortly after Tokyo imposed the export curbs, Lee added. </p>