A North Korean representative to the United Nations has urged Japan to quickly resolve the issue of its wartime sex enslavement of foreign women.

The North Korean envoy told a UN General Assembly meeting Tuesday that it is "unimaginable" to think that progress in women's rights can be achieved in the present or in the future without coming clean about the past.

The North's state-run Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) quoted the envoy as saying that Japan's World War Two sex enslavement of 200-thousand Korean women is a "crime against humanity" and a "grave human rights issue" that must be resolved.

The North Korean envoy went on to say that denying the crimes is an even bigger offense.

He also cited an international resolution calling for Japan's apology and compensation for sex slavery.