Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said South Korea should give “proper responses” to resolve a dispute over Japan's wartime forced labor.

Abe made the remark on Asahi TV after Sunday’s upper house elections, saying constructive dialogue is impossible unless South Korea responds appropriately to its “violations” of the 1965 treaty that normalized relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

Abe said that South Korea and Japan agreed to cooperate and establish relations under the treaty and that it's regrettable that Seoul has acted in a way that Abe describes as going against the treaty.

Japan maintains that all colonial-era claims, including reparations, were “settled completely and finally” under the 1965 treaty.

Regarding Japan's export curbs of high-tech materials to Seoul, Abe reiterated the claim that the measures are not retaliatory but stem from security concerns.