South Korea and Japan will hold another round of talks on Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II next week in Seoul following a hiatus last month, the foreign ministry said Friday.

Lee Sang-deok, Seoul's chief delegate to the talks, will meet with his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, on Thursday in their fifth round of talks to discuss the issue of wartime sex slaves, according to the foreign ministry.

In April, the two countries held the first round of monthly talks on the so-called comfort women, but they skipped the meeting in June due to Japan's review of its 1993 apology over the issue before resuming talks in July. The meeting was also held in September.

Tokyo's review said that the Kono statement was the outcome of a political compromise between Seoul and Tokyo, inviting strong criticism from South Korea and China whose women were victims of the sex slavery.

Seoul has called on Tokyo to unveil substantive measures to resolve the long-standing issue as it believes discussions alone are not sufficient to resolve the issue, a major source of diplomatic tension between the two historical rivals.

Bilateral relations are at their lowest ebb in recent years due to Japan's attempts to gloss over its wartime atrocities such as the sex slavery and its territorial claims to South Korea's easternmost islets of Dokdo.

Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, were coerced into providing sexual services for the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. Only 54 victims remain alive in South Korea, with their average age standing at 88.

Since taking office in early 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has shunned a summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, citing that healing of historical wounds should be prioritized. Seoul has called on Tokyo to show sincerity in resolving the issue of the sex slaves.

Earlier this month, the two leaders met in Beijing during a gala dinner on the sidelines of a summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) where they agreed to encourage their officials to move forward their talks on the sex slavery issue.

South Korea demands that Japan show sincerity by settling the issue "in a way that is agreeable to the living victims," including through an apology and compensation.

Japan has long dismissed Seoul's demands, claiming that all grievances related to its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were settled through a 1965 treaty that normalized their bilateral ties. Yonhap