Japan, South Korea and the United States held a trilateral vice ministerial meeting Saturday in Tokyo to ratchet up the pressure on North Korea and lay plans to call on other nations, particularly China, to join efforts to enforce stronger sanctions against Pyongyang over its recent nuclear bomb test.
The three vice ministers who took part in the talks were Japan's Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki, South Korea's First Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Lim Sung-nam and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken.
"The discussion we had today was very positive, productive and practical in advancing cooperation among our three countries," Blinken told reporters at a joint news conference at the Iikura Guesthouse in Minato Ward, Tokyo, after the meeting.