JAPAN’S new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga acknowledged that relations with South Korea had deteriorated to a “very severe condition” today in talks with the latter’s President Moon Jae In — but appeared to rule out compromise on issues that divide them.

Former prime minister Shinzo Abe’s remilitarisation drive and efforts to overturn the country’s “peace constitution” — that outlaws war as a means of resolving disputes — suited Washington’s priority of intimidating China.

However, his defence of Japan’s wartime record offended fellow US ally South Korea, particularly when his government issued new school textbooks removing references to the “comfort women” — mostly Korean women forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army.

Japan has rejected South Korean demands for compensation for workers forced into slave labour by its occupying army and Mr Suga indicated that it was unlikely to change its stance, saying that Tokyo had been “consistent” and he would “continue to strongly urge South Korea to take appropriate actions.”