The Japanese government assured South Korea on Wednesday that it will uphold an official apology over frontline brothels for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Junichi Ihara, head of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, made the assurance in a meeting with Lee Sang-deok, head of the Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau of the South Korean Foreign Ministry, Japanese Foreign Ministry officials said.

Ihara was briefing the South Koreans on a Japanese government review of the apology, which was issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono in 1993.