South Korea and Japan held a fresh round of talks in Seoul on Thursday over Japan's sexual enslavement of Korean women during World War II, Seoul's foreign ministry said.
   
The fifth round of meetings on the wartime sex slavery issue drew particular attention, as it came after leaders of the two countries agreed last month to "encourage" the director general-level talks to make progress in one of the thorniest bilateral issues.
   
Lee Sang-deok, Seoul's director general for Northeast Asian affairs, met with his Japanese counterpart, Junichi Ihara, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
   
The two sides had kicked off the dialogue on the so-called comfort women in April, but they called off the monthly talks in June due to Japan's review of its 1993 apology over the matter before resuming talks in July. The last session took place in September.
   
Historians say up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea and China, were coerced into offering 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.
   
The Seoul government urged Japan again to take sincere, substantive actions, including an apology and compensation, that can appease the victims, but the prospect of a breakthrough appears dim if recent incidents serve as any indication, according to Seoul officials and experts. 
   
Japan's prominent liberal newspaper, the Asahi Shimbun, admitted that its stories on comfort women carried errors as they were based on some false testimonies by former soldier Seiji Yoshida who said he had taken part in abducting women on South Korea's southern island of Jeju for military brothels overseas.
   
The retraction led hard-line voices in Japanese society to grow, with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo saying in his recent interview with the Japanese daily Sankei Shimbun that his country should "restore its honor and trust" in the international community through the "right" perception on history regarding the sex slavery issue.
   
Japan has long dismissed South Korea'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.
   
Relations between the neighbors have worsened in recent years, as Japan has made attempts to whitewash its wartime atrocities.

Since taking office in February 2013, South Korean President Park Geun-hye has shunned a summit with Abe, calling on Tokyo to first show sincerity over such sensitive issues. (Yonhap)