Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-hye have agreed to coordinate responses to North Korea's ballistic missile launches during bilateral talks in Laos.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit, Abe also asked Park to consider the issue of a statue honoring "comfort women" outside the Japanese Embassy in Seoul.
Their roughly 30-minute meeting came after North Korea fired three ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan shortly after midday Monday, the latest in a string of launches in recent months.