It would be the first dedicated museum for the memory of such women, according to an official at Chung's ministry.

The idea is still at a study stage, with no specific plan or budget, the official said.

Chung unveiled the idea in an address during a visit to the Seoul Museum of History, where she viewed exhibits related to comfort women.

She said she hopes to use the new museum to promote a more stable and systematic research project on former comfort women and strengthen education for the next generation.

The museum would be a sacred global place for all people who oppose war or infringements of human rights, Chung added.

Regarding the landmark December 2015 agreement between Japan and South Korea to resolve the comfort women issue "finally and irreversibly," Chung said that she often hears former comfort women and civil group members say they cannot accept the deal.

It is more important than anything else to listen carefully to the victims and members of civil groups that support them and reflect their opinions in actions, she said.

The minister also said she plans to visit former comfort women individually and convey their views and those of their supporters to the authorities concerned.

Before and during World War II, comfort women came mostly from the Korean Peninsula, then under Japan's colonial rule.

Ahead of her tour of the Seoul Museum of History, Chung paid a visit to the House of Sharing in the suburbs of Seoul, a shelter for former comfort women.

In talks with residents, Chung expressed her readiness to support a campaign to include documents related to wartime comfort women in UNESCO's Memory of the World Register.

The government of former South Korean President Park Geun-hye stopped short of supporting the campaign following the comfort women accord with Japan. (Jiji Press)