South Korea's industry minister said Thursday that the government will increase its budget to support the local display-making sector next year in a move to keep the country's leading position in the key industrial segment.

Sung Yun-mo, minister of trade, industry and energy, said the budget hike is meant, among other things, to support the development of next-generation technologies and their performance evaluation of smaller display manufacturers.

He did not provide details on the proposed budget hike. He made the comments during a visit to a South Korean manufacturer of Organic Light Emitting Diode products in Paju, about 40 kilometers northwest of Seoul.

South Korea will hold a second round of talks with Japan soon in the latest attempt to resolve the ongoing trade row over Tokyo's export restrictions at the World Trade Organization.

The talks are part of a dispute settlement process under rules of the WTO.

Last month, the two failed to reach an agreement in their first talks in Geneva in connection with Seoul's complaint with the global trade body over Tokyo's export curbs.

In July, Tokyo imposed tighter regulations on exports to Seoul of three materials -- resist, etching gas and fluorinated polyimide -- that are critical for the production of semiconductors and flexible displays. Japan later removed South Korea from its list of trusted trading partners.

South Korea views the Japanese moves as retaliation against last year's South Korean Supreme Court rulings ordering Japanese firms to compensate South Korean victims of forced labor during Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. (Yonhap)