Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato urged South Korea to appropriately response to the wartime forced labor compensation issue during a meeting with Seoul's outgoing envoy.

This is according to Kyodo news agency, which said that South Korean ambassador to Tokyo Nam Gwan-pyo paid a final courtesy visit to the prime minister's residence on Friday.

The report said the ambassador wished success for next summer's Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and the two sides agreed to cooperate on that front. 

Nam and Kato also affirmed close cooperation on North Korea issues including the abduction of Japanese citizens by Pyongyang. 

Seoul earlier announced former lawmaker Kang Chang-il as new ambassador to Japan.

Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper also reported Saturday that the chief cabinet secretary in a Friday news conference urged South Korea's sincere implementation of a bilateral agreement struck five years ago to settle the wartime sex slavery issue.