No decision has been made yet on whether to hold talks with Japan's foreign minister on the sidelines of a U.N. meeting in New York, a South Korean official said Sunday.

The official at South Korea's foreign ministry made the remarks after Japan's Yomiuri newspaper reported South Korean Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong and his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi may hold bilateral talks on the sidelines of the 76th U.N. General Assembly later this month.

The South Korean official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, confirmed Seoul and Japan have pushed for a bilateral meeting between Chung and Motegi, but said, "No decision has been made."

In May, Chung and Motegi held bilateral talks in Britain.

South Korea and Japan have been caught in a protracted row over Japan's wartime forced labor and sexual slavery, as well as its export curbs.

Source: Yonhap News Agency