TOKYO: Japan is "extremely disappointed" that South Korean President Park Geun-Hye sees no point in a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, an official said on Tuesday.
The comments come after Park said a sit-down would get the two sides nowhere while Tokyo refuses to apologise for "past wrongdoings".
Abuses carried out during Japan's repressive 1910-45 colonial rule remain a source of deep anger and resentment in South Korea, particularly the treatment of women forced to work as "comfort women" in Japan's wartime military brothels.
"We are extremely disappointed that concerns were expressed in this interview" with the BBC, deputy chief cabinet secretary Katsunobu Kato told reporters.
"Japan has been explaining to the South Korean side our position over past issues such as perceptions on history and comfort women, and we've asked them to accept it," Kato said.
Japanese politicians express exasperation over repeated requests for contrition by South Korea, pointing to numerous apologies and a 1965 agreement that normalised relations and included a large payment to Seoul.
Abe and Park, both of whom came to power in the past 12 months, have not yet held a formal meeting, although they have met at international gatherings.
"South Korea is an important neighbour that shares with us basic values and interests, so Japan will continue efforts to build cooperation," Kato added.
"Prime Minister Abe always says we should hold a summit exactly because there are problems," he added.
The fracas is a headache for Washington, which would dearly like its two closest allies in Asia to get along, especially in the face of China's rising might.
In an interview with the BBC aired Monday ahead of a trip to Britain, Park said issues over the interpretation of history and comfort women have not been "resolved or addressed".
"If Japan continues to stick to the same historical perceptions and repeat its past comments, then what purpose would a summit serve? Perhaps it would be better not to have one," she said.
"If they continue to say there is no need for an apology, and no need to acknowledge their past wrongdoings, then what good would it do?"
In a landmark pronouncement in 1995 Japan said it "caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations" in the first half of the 20th century, adding then prime minister Tomiichi Murayama felt "deep remorse" and offered a "heartfelt apology".
And in a 1993 statement in the name of then chief cabinet secretary Yohei Kono, Japan offered "sincere apologies" to those women forced into sexual slavery.
However, backtracking by some conservative Japanese politicians has stirred anger, particularly in Seoul, which argues Tokyo shows a lack of sincerity.
The conservative Sankei Shimbun said Tuesday Japan's foreign ministry produced a document last month saying "since the early 1990s South Korea has expressed its position that the comfort women issue is outside the (1965) deal on compensation".
The document reportedly said a ruling by South Korea's constitutional court in 2011 that ordered Seoul to reopen negotiations with Tokyo over compensation for comfort women "could threaten the foundations of the Japan-South Korea relationship".
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