The South Korean government says it respects a Seoul court ruling made in favor of Korean victims demanding compensation from Tokyo over Japan's wartime sexual slavery, but also promised to work toward constructive bilateral relations. 

In a statement issued under its spokesperson Choi Young-sam on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it will do what it can to restore the honor and dignity of the South Korean victims. 

The statement also said the government will review the ruling’s impact on the diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo and will make multifaceted efforts so the two countries could continue constructive and future-oriented cooperation.

Earlier in the day, the Seoul Central District Court ordered Japan to compensate 12 Korean victims of its World War Two military sexual enslavement, paying each victim 100 million won in damage compensation.

In the verdict, the court noted the plaintiffs' right to seek compensation is not determined by the 1965 treaty that normalized bilateral relations or the 2015 Seoul-Tokyo deal that sought to settle the sexual slavery issue.

The South Korean Foreign Ministry ensured that regardless of the court ruling, it still views the 2015 agreement reached between the administrations led by then leaders Park Geun-hye and Shinzo Abe as an official one. 

The Moon Jae-in administration has repeated that although the five-year-old deal did not reflect the victims’ opinions and thus is not a fundamental solution, it will not call for its scrapping or renegotiation.