Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono speaks to media after a meeting with South Korean ambassador to Japan Lee Su-hoon (not pictured) at the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, Japan October 30, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono said on Wednesday that South Korea’s decision to dissolve a “comfort women” foundation funded by Japan to compensate women forced to work in wartime brothels was “unacceptable.”

The decision effectively negates a 2015 agreement between the two nations as relations deteriorate over lingering historical disputes, analysts said.

But Kono said that he was told by the South Korean side that this did not equal abandoning the agreement.