South Korea asks Japan to keep it on favoured trading list amid row-Kyodo

Aug 1 (Reuters) - South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha asked her Japanese counterpart on Thursday to keep the country on a "white list" of countries that enjoy minimum trade restrictions, Kyodo News reported.

In a meeting on the sidelines of a forum in Bangkok, Kang also asked Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono to withdraw restrictions that Tokyo recently placed on exports of some high-tech materials to South Korea.

Japan imposed the export curbs as ties worsened, fuelled by a compensation row over South Koreans forced to work in Japan's factories when it occupied the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.

Tokyo could decide as soon as Friday on whether to drop South Korea from the "white list", Japanese media have said.

(Reporting by Chris Gallagher and Kaori Kaneko in TOKYO; Editing by Kim Coghill)