Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Sunday that South Korea is responsible for the worsening relationship with Japan.

According to Kyodo News, Suga made the remarks while appearing on a TV Asahi program, repeating Tokyo's position that South Korea has failed to observe the agreement reached in 1965 when the two nations normalized relations.

Suga's comments echoed what Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono recently wrote in an opinion piece for Bloomberg.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun daily quoted Suga as saying that the 1965 agreement is a treaty, which should be observed by all state organs of a nation including the administration, legislation, judicature and courts.

The Japanese official reportedly said that if a nation violates the treaty, the two sides should first hold discussion to settle issues before involving a third party to seek arbitration.