Civic activists from the two Koreas issued a joint statement Monday criticizing Japan's wartime atrocities and calling for apology and compensation.

"Japan should immediately stop its distortion of history and whitewashing of wartime crimes and take measures to prevent a recurrence of such crimes by correctly describing the sex slavery system and all wartime crimes committed by the Japanese military in school textbooks," the statement said.

The statement was issued at the end of a three-day international conference on Japanese wartime sex slavery in Seoul.

The statement also urged Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to stop denying that Japan coerced young Asian women into sexual slavery during World War II.

Activists also urged Japan to set up a governmental fact-finding team on sexual slavery.