Japan and South Korea agreed to drop an almost four-year-old trade dispute on high-tech materials on Thursday. Japan will remove curbs on its exports to South Korea of critical materials for smartphone displays and chips while Seoul will drop a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against Tokyo, South Korea's trade ministry said.

Japan and South Korea agreed to drop an almost four-year-old trade dispute on high-tech materials on Thursday, an emphatic sign they aim to rebuild a relationship strained by history and work together against deepening security threats.

The announcement came during Yoon Suk Yeol's visit to Japan on Thursday, the first for a South Korean president 12 years, as the two neighbours look for common ground in the face of frequent North Korean missile launches.

Japan will remove curbs on its exports to South Korea of critical materials for smartphone displays and chips while Seoul will drop a World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against Tokyo, South Korea's trade ministry said.

Tokyo imposed the curbs in 2019 as tensions over a decades-old row with Seoul deepened. Thursday's announcement is likely to be seen as a sign of Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's desire to present a united front against growing regional tension and cooperate on supply chains. In doing so, they look to leave behind years of animosity sparked by Japan's 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

The urgency of regional security and the threat posed by North Korea were underscored in the hours before Yoon's arrival, when the North fired a long-range ballistic missile that landed in the sea between the Korean peninsula and Japan.

Yoon has said that he expects to "invigorate" security cooperation and the two leaders are preparing to confirm the restart of a bilateral security dialogue which has been suspended since 2018, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.