Foreign Minister Taro Kono on Thursday turned up the heat on South Korea in a dispute over compensation for wartime labor, but failed to convince Seoul to accept Tokyo's request for arbitration.
In a meeting in Paris, South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha only repeated Seoul's intention to review the request, according to a Japanese Foreign Ministry official.
Kono told reporters later that South Korean President Moon Jae-in needs to come up with measures necessary to resolve the spat in a responsible manner by the time a Group of 20 summit takes place in Osaka in late June as Seoul "cannot let the situation remain in violation of international law."