Tokyo has protested Seoul calling the Japanese military’s wartime sexual slavery a "universal human rights issue" at a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

At a regular press conference on Wednesday, Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said Tokyo can not accept Seoul's latest move as the issue has been finally and irreversibly settled through an agreement reached in 2015.

Kato said Tokyo delivered its position to Seoul in Geneva the previous day and will reiterate it during the UN session.

At the Council session on Tuesday, South Korea's Second Vice Foreign Minister Choi Jong-moon highlighted that Japan's wartime sex slavery must be addressed as a "universal human rights issue." He stressed that the recurrence of such a rights violation in conflict must be prevented.

While it had refrained from casting light on the issue immediately after the 2015 agreement, Seoul resumed bringing the matter to the UN Human Rights Council in 2018 after acknowledging that there were problems with the deal.