Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda says that there is no evidence that the Japanese troops forced Korean women into sexual slavery during World War Two.

Attending an upper house budget committee session on Monday, Noda said that the issue of sex slaves was resolved in a 1965 agreement between South Korea and Japan. The agreement was a bilateral treaty to normalize relations, drawn up to settle matters regarding to property and claims and economic cooperation.

Noda also dismissed a statement made in 1993 that acknowledged and apologized for the forcible recruitment of sex slaves by Japanese troops. Noda said that there are no documents that confirm the Japanese military forced Korean women into sexual slavery and there are no Japanese witnesses to confirm such a draft. The 1993 statement was issued by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono after a government inspection on the matter.

Meanwhile, Japan’s National Public Safety Commission Chairman Jin Matsubara also called for a revision to the statement, saying that primary sources confirming the forcible recruitment have not been found.