Japan and South Korea have concluded talks on the issue of "comfort women" procured for the Japanese military's wartime brothels without a breakthrough.
"We held deep discussions in good faith. It is difficult to hold the next meeting within this year," Lee Sang-deok, director general of the Northeast Asian Affairs Bureau in the South Korean Foreign Ministry, told reporters after the meeting Tuesday in Tokyo.
Lee and Kimihiro Ishikane, director general of the Foreign Ministry's Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau, agreed to continue discussions on a host of bilateral issues, the Foreign Ministry said, but did not elaborate on what topics were taken up.