SEOUL - South Korea has released rare video footage of Korean women forced to work in Japanese military brothels during World War II, the first time moving images have been shown of the comfort women.

A research team from Seoul National University found the footage, which was filmed in 1944 by a US soldier, in the United States National Archives after a two-year hunt.

"South Korea has not had its own data on comfort women and (has) been relying on Japanese and American data," said Kang Sung-hyun, an academic on the team. "It is crucial for us."

The 18-second black-and-white clip shows seven women lined up outside a brick house, being questioned by Chinese soldiers. The women were found by US-China allied forces in China's Yunnan province, the research team said.

Su Zhiliang, director of the "comfort women" research center at Shanghai Normal University, said that about 400,000 women in Asia were forced into prostitution by the Japanese army during the war.

South Korean experts said that there may have been as many as 200,000 Korean victims.

Tokyo and Seoul agreed to resolve the issue "finally and irreversibly" in 2015 if all conditions were met. Japan made an apology and promised 1 billion yen ($8.8 million) for a fund to help victims.

However, the issue continues to strain relations between the two countries.

Japan wants South Korea to remove a statue near the Japanese consulate in Busan city commemorating Korean comfort women, as well as another near the Japanese embassy in Seoul, saying that the presence of the statues violates the 2015 agreement.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in suggested during his campaign for a May 9 election that most South Koreans did not accept the 2015 deal and he could try to renegotiate it.

On Wednesday, experts from China and South Korea revealed a list confirming the names of 135 "comfort women" from the war. A list of 210 people, who were originally from the Korean Peninsula and lived in Jinhua of East China's Zhejiang province, was kept in the Jinhua City Archives. The list was marked April 1944.

"The 210 people were from the Korean Peninsula. The document lists their names, ages, place of birth, and professions," said Chen Yanyan, head of the archives.

Su, from Shanghai Normal University, said: "There were photographers, businessmen, caterers, drivers, shop assistants, confectionery dealers, and translators, but there are no details of the professions for over 100 females aged between 20 to 30. Their addresses were found to be the same as owners of comfort stations."

Reuters - Xinhua