High-ranking Japanese officials denied a media report Tuesday that Tokyo and Seoul are considering setting up a joint "economic cooperation fund" to resolve the thorny issue of wartime forced labor compensation, which has repeatedly rocked bilateral relations over the past year.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga emphatically denied the report, saying during a news conference on Tuesday that it is "not factually true."
A senior Foreign Ministry official claimed separately that the report is "an outright lie."