Senior diplomats from Japan, South Korea and the United States plan to meet in Tokyo in the middle of this month to reaffirm trilateral security cooperation amid growing concerns over an increasingly assertive China and North Korea's nuclear ambitions, diplomatic sources said.

The diplomats are hoping to push for stronger ties by building on the momentum of the deal struck between Japan and South Korea last month to "finally and irreversibly" resolve the "comfort women" dispute, the sources said Monday.

Japan will be represented by Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki, the United States by Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and South Korea by Lim Sung-nam, first vice minister of foreign affairs, the sources said.