Japan PM asks South Korea to take steps to resolve bilateral row

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Tuesday it is South Korea's responsibility to come up with measures that would resolve bilateral disputes that have taken Tokyo's relationship with Seoul to the lowest in decades.

Abe made the comment at a news conference on the sidelines of a trilateral summit with China and South Korea in Chengdu, China.

Ties between Japan and South Korea, two of the United States' major Asian allies, have plunged to their lowest in decades after South Korea's top court last year ordered Japanese firms to compensate some wartime forced labourers.

Japan says the issue was settled under a 1965 treaty and that the court ruling violated international law.