TOKYO government spokesman Yoshihide Suga outraged Seoul today, insisting that there would be no real apology for Japan’s wartime enslavement of hundreds of thousands of Korean women in brothels for its troops.

Japanese nationalists contend that women in wartime brothels were voluntary prostitutes, not sex slaves

Mr Suga reiterated Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s refusal not to revise an infamous 1993 semi-apology, saying that evaluation of the historical evidence should be left to historians and scholars.

“Japan’s relations with South Korea are extremely important and we will try to explain this issue to gain understanding,” he said.

However, South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Noh Kwang Il said: “The Japanese government should clearly know that action that again picks on the painful wound of the victims will never be forgiven by the international community.”

Mr Noh urged Japan to admit its responsibility and immediately propose a solution that the elderly victims can accept.