On Friday, the UN Committee against Torture said that the deal is not enough to help the victims, calling on the two sides to revise the deal to "ensure that the surviving victims of sexual slavery during World War II are provided with redress, including the right to compensation and rehabilitation and the right to truth, reparation and assurances of non-repetitions."

"We bear in mind (the UN panel's recommendation)," Cho June-hyuck, foreign ministry spokesman, told a regular press briefing. "Relevant ministries and agencies are currently reviewing what was recommended."

Calls for renegotiating or scrapping the deal have been growing in South Korea especially since President Moon Jae-in was sworn in last week. On the campaign trail, Moon had promised to seek a renegotiation of the agreement that his impeached predecessor Park Geun-hye reached with Japan.

In his telephone conversation with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday, Moon said that most South Korean people cannot accept the sexual slavery agreement, hinting that his government might be seeking to renegotiate the controversial deal.

Japan remains adamant that the deal should be respected.

Japan's wartime sexual slavery of Korean women has been a thorny issue between the two Asian neighbors. Historians estimate that up to 200,000 women, mostly from Korea, were forced to work in front-line brothels for Japanese troops during World War II. Around 40 surviving South Korean victims are mostly in their late 80s. (Yonhap)