South Korea and Japan reached a landmark deal on Monday to resolve the issue of Korean women forced into sexual slavery for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se and his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, announced the agreement after talks at the Foreign Ministry in Seoul, which centered on Japan's admission of responsibility for the wartime crime and plans to pay reparations to the victims.

"The comfort women issue is an issue whereby many women under the then military's involvement bore deep scars to their honor and dignity, and from this perspective, the Japanese government acutely feels responsible," Kishida said in a joint press conference with Yun at the ministry. (Yonhap)