Tokyo, July 31 (Jiji Press)–Japanese and South Korean lawmakers Wednesday agreed to make every effort to improve bilateral relations, while remaining apart on the issue of wartime labor and Japan’s tightening of export controls on South Korea.

The lawmakers met in Tokyo amid escalating tensions between the two neighboring Asian countries.

“The time has come for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Moon Jae-in to work to build a new Japan-South Korea relationship,” former Japanese Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga, head of a suprapartisan group of Japanese lawmakers for bilateral ties, told reporters after the meeting.

Suh Chung-won, leader of a delegation of South Korean lawmakers, said the continuation of the current situation would not benefit either country.

At the meeting, the South Korean side demanded that the Japanese government drop its plan to remove their country from its list of “white” countries granted preferential treatment in export procedures.

Japanese lawmakers explained that the planned measure is designed to address security issues.

On the wartime labor issue, the Japanese side urged Seoul to come up with a solution that Japan can accept. The South Korean side vowed to consider the matter in parliament in August.