SEOUL, Dec. 28 -- Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his apology and remorse for Korean women falling victim to Japan's sex slavery during World War II, Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida said here on Monday.

Kishida read a statement for Abe at a joint press conference with his South Korean counterpart Yun Byung-se after holding talks on the issue of comfort women, a euphemism for Korean women forced to serve in Japan's military brothels during WWII.

The top Japanese diplomat said in the statement that Prime Minister Abe "expresses apology and remorse from the heart for all the people suffering hard-to-cure wounds" physically and psychologically.

The phrase of "apology and remorse from the heart" has been used by Abe in the past.

The Abe statement said "the Japanese government strongly feels responsibility" for the comfort women issue from the perspective that the honor and dignity of many women were deeply scarred "under the involvement of" the Imperil Japanese Army.

The statement, however, failed to clearly stipulate the "legal responsibility" which the comfort women victims have urged the Abe cabinet to express.