"We plan to ask Japan to provide an explanation (for its export restrictions) during (Friday's) meeting," said Park Tae-sung, who heads the ministry's international trade and investment division.

South Korea, whose main export products include memory chips, is heavily dependent on Japan for such materials.

Japan claimed that its tough regulations of shipments are due in part to Seoul's non-compliance with UN-led sanctions on North Korea.

The South Korean government, however, rebutted the claims, saying that it has found no evidence of such violations and urging Tokyo to stop making groundless allegations.

Responding to a report by a Japanese media outlet that South Korea had detected 156 cases of unauthorized exports of strategic materials since 2015, Park claimed that fact indicates that South Korea's export control system is working properly.

"South Korea is recognized as a model country for its effective control of exports," Park said. "We strongly urge Japan to stop making attempts to disparage our export control system," he added.

Seoul claims the restriction is politically driven economic retaliation that came after the South Korean Supreme Court ordered Japanese firms last year to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Japan has lashed out at the ruling, insisting that all reparation issues stemming from its colonial rule were settled under a 1965 government-to-government accord that normalized bilateral relations. (Yonhap)