SEOUL, March 13 -- South Korea's Foreign Ministry urged Japanese politicians Thursday to stop making contradictory comments on "comfort women," a euphemism for South Korean women forced into sex slavery in the Japanese military brothels during the World War II.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Cho Tai-young told a press briefing that Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga made comments on Wednesday to deny forced conscription of "comfort women" victims and the Japanese Imperial Army's intervention.

While saying on one hand that Japan will inherit the Kono Statement unveiled in 1993, Abe's cabinet denied the coerced recruitment of "comfort women" on the other hand, Cho said.

Cho urged the Japanese government to immediately stop making such contradictory comments, expressing deep regrets over the remarks made by Suga who represents the Japanese government.

Suga said last month that the Abe cabinet will review interviews with 16 South Korean "comfort women," which were conducted in 1993 by Japanese officials in Seoul for five days.

The testimonies resulted in the Kono Statement, an official apology made by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono later that year for coercing more than 200,000 young women, mostly South Koreans, into sex slavery during Japanese colonial rule of Asia.

Among the 237 South Korean women who identified themselves as former sex slaves, only 55 are alive.

The first vice ministerial-level diplomatic talks in about eight months between South Korea and Japan were held Wednesday in Seoul, but the dialogue ended fruitless.

Cho said that there will be no reason for South Korea to refuse Japan's dialogue proposal if Japan shows changes in its attitude toward its militaristic past, noting the South Korean government wanted a productive summit, not a dialogue for the sake of dialogue.

Ahead of the vice ministerial talks, some Japanese media reported that Japan was seeking to arrange a trilateral summit with South Korea and the United States on the sidelines of the Nuclear Security Summit set to be held in the Hague, the Netherlands on March 24 and 25.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye, who was sworn in as the head of state in February last year, has refused to hold summit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, citing his wrong perception of history and no repentance over past brutalities.

Ties between Seoul and Tokyo have been strained since Abe returned to power in December 2012. Abe infuriated Asian neighbors by visiting the notorious Yasukuni Shrine in December 2013.

The shrine, which honors 14 convicted class-A war criminals during World War II, has been viewed as a symbol of Japan's imperialism in the 20th century.