SEOUL-- North Korea's official news agency on Thursday slammed Japan over its wartime sexual enslavement of Korean women, calling it a "war crime to which no statute of limitations is applicable."

The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) also criticized Japan's denial of relevant evidence at a recent U.N. session as an "intolerable" and "shameful" act that makes a mockery of "justice" and "human conscience."

"At the 47th Session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, the Japanese representative contended it was an ungrounded story that the imperial Japanese army forcibly drafted 'comfort women' during the Second World War," the KCNA said.

"Japan's behavior is an intolerable and shameful act and a mockery of and challenge to justice and human conscience," it added. "Japan must know that war crimes must be punished and, especially, a sexual violation of women is a war crime to which no statute of limitations is applicable."

The KCNA demanded Japan "sincerely" apologize for its past wrongdoings and settle related issues, instead of trying to avoid its "undeniable" crime.

North Korea has long demanded Japan's apology and compensation for its colonial-era atrocities during its 1910-45 colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula.

Historians have said around 200,000 Asian women, mostly Koreans, were forcibly sent to front-line brothels to provide sex services for Japanese soldiers during World War II.

Source: Yonhap News Agency