Prime Minister Shinzo Abe rejected calls by South Korea Friday to offer a fresh apology to the Korean "comfort women" forced to provide sex at Japanese military brothels before and during World War II, saying Seoul's recent attempt to revisit the historic 2015 agreement is "completely unacceptable."
It was Abe's first public response to a controversial announcement made by Seoul earlier this week that it expects Japan to make a "voluntary and sincere" apology to the victims of its forced prostitution.
In the announcement, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha also said Seoul will establish its own fund worth ¥1 billion to support the survivors and reassess how to spend the same amount that was contributed to a Korean fund by Japan in accordance with the 2015 pact.