The Foreign Ministry has explained that the government’s revoking of the founding permit of the Reconciliation and Healing Foundation is an administrative follow-up to Seoul's decision to dissolve the controversial Japan-funded foundation.

A ministry official said Tuesday that the Japanese government has conveyed its stance through a diplomatic channel, saying the cancellation is unacceptable.

South Korea decided to disband the foundation last November.

According to Japan's Kyodo news agency and public broadcaster NHK, Japanese Foreign Ministry's director of Asian and Oceanian affairs Kenji Kanasugi made a protest phone call to a South Korean embassy official in Tokyo on Monday.

The Japanese official argued the foundation is the means of implementing the South Korea-Japan agreement reached in 2015 to settle Tokyo's wartime sex slavery issue.

In response, the embassy's deputy diplomatic minister is known to have told Kanasugi that procedures will take place to dissolve the foundation as decided by the Seoul government.