Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has used the stage of the UN General Assembly to slam South Korea, holding Seoul responsible for their souring bilateral ties. 

According to the Japanese prime minister’s official residence, Abe’s criticism came during a press conference in New York Wednesday arranged for Japanese and international press. 

Answering related questions, Abe denied Japan’s trade restrictions on South Korea were in retaliation for South Korean court decisions on Japan’s wartime forced labor of Koreans. 

He reiterated his government's claim that the export curbs are in line with World Trade Organization(WTO) rules. He also asserted the South Korean court rulings violated the 1965 normalization treaty between the two countries and accused the South Korean government of damaging mutual trust by refusing to intervene.