Seoul |  South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday berated Japan for carrying out its plan to downgrade South Korea's trade status and reiterated that Tokyo was weaponising trade to retaliate over political rows stemming from the countries' wartime history.

Moon said in a Cabinet meeting that Japan was being dishonest by insisting that its trade curbs weren't retaliation over historical issues, including South Korean court rulings that called for Japanese companies to offer reparations to aging South Korean plaintiffs for forced labor during World War II.

AAP