The South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) has called Japan’s recent export controls “discriminatory,” explaining that no exports of liquid hydrogen fluoride, a material used in semiconductors, to South Korea have been approved within the past three months. Within the same period, only three exports of photoresist, one export of hydrogen fluoride (in gas form), and one export of fluorinated polyimide have been approved, indicated Japan’s recent export measures are indeed specifically targeting the South Korean semiconductor industry, and are therefore retaliatory in nature. The photo shows Park Tae-sung, MOTIE’s deputy minister for trade and investment, during a press briefing on Oct. 1.