SEOUL, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The South Korean government on Saturday expressed "strong regret" over Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's latest denial that the Japanese military had forced foreign women into sexual slavery during World War II.

    "Prime Minister Abe's March-1 remark denying the coercion of the comfort women in the Japanese military is glossing over historic truth, and our government expresses strong regret about this," the South Korean Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

    The statement came after Abe was quoted by Japanese Jiji Press on Thursday that "there is no evidence to prove there was coercion" exercised over the foreign women, euphemistically called "comfort women" that were forced to service Japanese soldiers in state-sponsored Japanese military brothels during the wartime.

    In 1993, the then Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono issued the so-called Kono statement, officially acknowledging and apologizing for Japan setting up and running brothels for its aggressor troops throughout Asia in 1930s and 1940s.

    South Korea doubts whether the Abe administration can stick to its earlier promise to inherit the spirit of the Kono statement, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.

    It also urged Japanese political leaders to show a responsible attitude over the historic issues.

    Following Abe's remarks, South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon, who was on a visit to the United States, said Friday that Abe's remarks will do no help to set up a healthy and future-oriented Seoul-Tokyo ties.

    South Korea's major parties, including the Uri Party, the Grand National Party and the Democracy Party, also condemned Abe's remarks on Saturday.

    "It was an inappropriate and absurd remark that distorted history and threw cold water on relations between South Korea and Japan. He should immediately recant it," said Park Yeong-gyu, a spokesman for Grand National Party, in a statement.

    "Japan should repent for its past misdeeds as Germany did," said Choe Jae-seong, a spokesman for the ruling Uri Party.

    Joong-ang Daily, a local English Newspaper, said in its editorials on Saturday that "Japan must know that it has failed to gain respect, despite its position as an economic superpower, because it has distorted history. No history can be hidden. By distorting it out of shame, it will become even more embarrassing for the country."

    An estimated 200,000 women were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese forces during World War Two, and most of them came from countries invaded by Japan at the time.