They began the trip with a lunch meeting with 10 Japanese lawmakers, including Fukushiro Nukaga of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), a co-head of the South Korea-Japan Parliamentarians' Union.

"We clearly shared a perception that with these grave issues, it will not be of help to either country if things continue to go this way," Suh told reporters after the nearly 2-hour meeting.

The delegation asked their counterparts to prevent the Japanese government from delisting South Korea. The removal would allow Japan to broadly restrict exports to South Korea by requiring Japanese exporters to seek licenses on a case by case basis for hundreds of industrial items that could also be used in producing weapons.

The lawmakers said the possible delisting would compromise the two countries' security cooperation on coping with North Korea's threats. Some opposition parties recently proposed Seoul scrap its military information-sharing agreement with Japan.

The two sides also discussed the issue of wartime forced labor.

South Korea views Japan's trade curbs as retaliation for Seoul court rulings that ordered Japanese firms to compensate victims of wartime forced labor.

Nukaga called on Seoul to resolve the legal disputes with Japan over the issue and Suh promised to cooperate to settle the conflicts, one of the participants said.

The delegation later met Natsuo Yamaguchi, leader of the Komeito party, the LDP's coalition partner, and held a meeting with Korean-Japanese businesspeople. The delegation will speak with Toshihiro Nikai, secretary-general of the ruling LDP on Thursday.

Before leaving Seoul, Suh said the parliamentary delegation will request their cooperation in de-escalating the tension between their countries.

"If the delisting occurs, it would have a great ripple effect and a catastrophic result," he said. "We will sincerely request the two countries take more time and that foreign affairs chiefs meet and make efforts so that the problem will not spread further," Suh said.

(Yonhap)