The Japanese government announced Thursday it will lift its export restrictions on three critical semiconductor materials — hydrogen fluoride, fluorinated polyimide and photoresist — to South Korea. In response, the South Korean government withdrew its complaint to the World Trade Organization (WTO) against Japan’s export measures. Officials from both countries also discussed measures to restore South Korea to Japan’s export whitelist. The export whitelist refers to a list of preferred trading partners. Countries on this list are exempted from additional export procedures for all products.

President Yoon Suk-yeol also said during a press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida that they had agreed to completely normalize the General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a military intelligence-sharing pact, which the previous Moon administration threatened to suspend in 2019 in protest of Tokyo's export restrictions against Seoul.