A former Japanese prime minister says Japan sticks by its 1995 apology for its World War Two aggression against Asian countries.

Former prime minister Tomiichi Murayama addressed an audience of Korean lawmakers in Seoul on Wednesday.

Murayama said the apology was a shared consensus among the Japanese people.

Murayama issued the statement when he was Japan’s prime minister in 1995. It’s known as the “Murayama Apology.”

He told Korean lawmakers the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, could not deny the statement.

Abe angered South Korea by visiting Japan’s Yasukuni war shrine, and South Korea’s President Park Geun-hye is refusing to meet with him.

Murayama stressed the importance of ties with South Korea and said he hoped a summit between Abe and Park could be arranged as soon as possible.