I wrote a pageful of my opinion on this trade conflict, but it all went to shit when I submitted it. I'm not going to go into details and will be very succinct about this.
The South Korean government is a lot to blame for ignoring this problem and not spending much diplomatic effort until the Japanese government escalated it to a trade conflict. The Japanese government is also to blame for escalating this to a trade conflict and involving politics in a strongly interconnected business community.
It's a pathetic excuse to say that South Korea is receiving preferential treatment among other Asian countries in this "white list". This "white list" is based on international treaties on the trade of strategic goods, and South Korea is the only Asian signatory in these treaties. South Korea has a similar export control system where Japan is the only Asian country on the list.
Reaction of the South Korean government and the ruling party to criticism of its handling of this matter is borderline racist and fascist, branding the opposition as pro-Japanese traitors. They are being very stubborn and foolish. The Japanese government is none the better. These two are escalating and perpetuating a situation where both their economies and strategic interests are getting hurt. It's like looking at two stupid bitches claw fighting.
