Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida reiterated that his government will continue to strongly demand South Korea's appropriate response to address pending bilateral issues based on Tokyo's consistent stance.

Kishida called South Korea an important neighbor while making the remark on Monday during his second policy speech in parliament since taking office in early October. 

He only mentioned South Korea once in the entire speech kept it to a single sentence, which is viewed as conveying his intent not to compromise on wartime sex slavery and forced labor issues related to Korea's Supreme Court rulings.

On North Korea, Kishida again promised all-out effort to resolve the issue of Japanese nationals abducted by the regime decades ago by making the most of all and any opportunity in cooperation with the U.S. and other concerned nations.