We start over at the top office... where President Moon Jae-in met with the nation's business leaders to devise a strategy to counter Japan's tech-related export curbs against South Korean firms.<br />It's the first such meeting between the president and business leaders since January.<br />For more, we connect live to our presidential office correspondent Shin Se-min standing by at the top office for us.<br />Semin, tell us more about this meeting.<br /><br />The meeting began at around 10-30 this morning, and has just wrapped up here at the top office.<br />President Moon Jae-in met with 34 business leaders for talks on countermeasures against Japan's export curbs and how the companies can respond.<br />The president mentioned the need for both short-term and more fundamental measures.<br /><br />"The government will actively support expanding domestic production and diversifying our business counterparts to minimize the damage to our firms. We should take this opportunity as a way to upgrade our core industries' use of domestic technology, components and materials and lower the level of reliance on foreign countries."<br /><br />The president added that the government is facing unreasonable export restrictions by Japan and is doing its utmost to find a diplomatic solution.<br />Moon once again called for Japan to act responsibly as such retaliatory measures will only result in damaging the two countries' bilateral friendship and cooperation on national security.<br />He also urged for conglomerate-driven collaboration on top of the government's measures.<br />At the meeting today were key figures from South Korea's big five conglomerates: Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG and Lotte Group.<br />But Samsung Electronics' Vice Chair and de facto leader Lee Jae-yong and Lotte Group's Shin Dong-bin were not at the meeting instead sending other representatives as they are in Japan looking for ways to minimize the impact of the export curbs on their respective companies.<br /><br />So we might have to wait a while for the details of the meeting today... but this isn't the first meeting that the top office has had since Japan's announcement of export restrictions.<br /><br />The presidential office and the government have been working closely with businesses since Japan had revealed its retaliatory measures on exports.<br />This past Sunday the presidential chief of staff for policy Kim Sang-jo and the top economic policymaker Hong Nam-ki reportedly held a behind-closed-doors meeting with the heads of Hyundai Motor, SK and LG Group.<br />It's been reported that they discussed the businesses' responses as well as the government's support plans.<br />And prior to that,... the presidential chief of staff also met with Samsung's semiconductor chief Kim Ki-nam and Yoon Boo-keun earlier this month.<br />This,... as Samsung's biggest cash cow, along with SK hynix, looks to be slammed the hardest over Japan's export restrictions that focus on materials needed for display and chip production.<br />...
