We start this morning at South Korea's Blue House...
In a rare display of solidarity, President Moon Jae-in and the leaders of ALL the country's political parties have demanded Japan immediately remove its export restrictions on Seoul.
The call came during a meeting Thursday at the top office.
While they agreed on the need to come out strong against Japan, they failed to see eye-to-eye on swiftly approving a long-pending extra budget bill that's been in limbo at the National Assembly for months.
That's despite the fact some of the extra funds would be directed to local firms affected by Tokyo's unprecedented trade measures.
Shin Se-min has our top story.
United against Japan's export restrictions that aim at undermining the heart of the Korean economy,... President Moon Jae-in and the heads of the nation's five main political parties agreed to form a pan-national emergency cooperation body on Thursday.

"The government and rival political parties have agreed to bipartisanly cooperate in the face of Japan's economic retaliatory measures and run a pan-national emergency cooperative body."

During the rare meeting, the first of its kind in over a year,... President Moon Jae-in and the leaders of the parties shared a mutual understanding that Japan's export curbs are an unfair economic measure that goes against free trade principles.
Standing in unity the president and the National Assembly leaders called on Tokyo to immediately withdraw its export control of core materials necessary in the manufacturing of semiconductors and display panels.

"Japan should clearly realize that additional measures such as removing Korea from its "white list" of trusted trade partners clearly jeopardizes not only bilateral relations but also the security and regional cooperation in Northeast Asia."

As for sending an envoy to Japan,.... President Moon reportedly said such a deployment of a high-level official is possible at any time,... but added that doesn't always mean it will be the ultimate solution, and said negotiations should take place first.
But despite Moon's call for a swift passage of the multi-billion dollar supplementary budget bill,... still mooring at the parliament,... the political leaders were not able to narrow the gap.

"With the country's political leaders, both the President and party chiefs,... not being able to reach a bipartisan consensus on the supplementary budget bill the issue of financial aid to Korean firms as well as the country's economic malaise may remain challenges for the time being.
Shin Se-min, Arirang News."