TOKYO- South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha said Wednesday that Japan and South Korea should make joint efforts to resolve the issue of so-called comfort women.

A majority of South Koreans as well as victims cannot accept the 2015 bilateral comfort women agreement, Kang told her Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, during their first phone conversation.

Kishida said the agreement should be implemented steadily, but Kang responded negatively.

The agreement was reached in December 2015 to resolve a dispute over Korean comfort women, who were forced to serve as prostitutes for Japanese troops before and during World War II. Kang, who became South Korea's first female foreign minister on Sunday, has said the deal was insufficient.

Kishida and Kang agreed that Japan and South Korea will continue to work together with the United States to increase pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear and missile programs.

The ministers also agreed to cooperate on realizing a proposed three-way summit between the two countries and China. Kishida told Kang that he would like to

meet her on the sidelines of the trilateral summit, expected to take place in Japan in late July, if she comes to Japan.

Kishida told reporters after the call that he would like to communicate closely with Kang and build a relationship of trust to "develop Japan-South Korea cooperation into a new future-oriented era." (Jiji Press)